The creation in Costa Rica of a specialized court to combat organized crime was supposed to be ready by October 14 this year, however, the president of the Supreme Court of Justice, Carlos Chinchilla, requested that this is held back for another year with the purpose of getting the necessary funding.

Chinchilla explained that the Supreme Court had already made the request to the Legislative Assembly before the change of government and is now presenting a new request to the new president of congress Carolina Hidalgo so that the beginning of the operation of Law 9481 is pushed for October 2019 with the purpose of having more time to organize the financing of the same, estimated in close to $62 million, within the 2019 budget.

The Law of Creation of Specialized Jurisdiction in Organized Crime was approved September 13, 2017, and establishes the creation of special courts and tribunals for the judgment of cases related to organized crime.

The creation of these new entities will require judges, prosecutors, public defenders and administrative personnel.

Personnel working in the specialized court will receive a different remuneration from the judges compared to personnel that work in the criminal justice system, and they will receive special protection due to the nature of their job.

“I sincerely appreciate the request of the president of the Supreme Court of Justice, because in fact we do need to battle organized crime.  I spoke in campaign about the importance of having a specialized legal system, but we have to be realistic, we need resources through the fiscal plan to have healthy public finances, otherwise, its implementation is not realistic”, commented President Carlos Alvarado.