Surgeon will not go to prison for manslaughter of Floridalma Roque
Along with Malouf, his assistants were sentenced to three years in prison for having assisted the surgeon on the day that Honduran Floridalma Roque disappeared.
After accepting the charges, the three defendants will receive minimum sentences by taking advantage of the benefit of acceptance of facts. – Photo: courtesy of social networks
Plastic surgeon Kevin Malouf was convicted on Wednesday by a Guatemalan court of the manslaughter of Honduran Floridalma Roque , who hid her body after she died in his clinic during an operation, but he will not go to prison because he accepted the charges and the sentence is commutable.
Criminal judge Pedro Laynez sentenced Malouf to five years in prison , however, since he accepted the charges, the sentence was reduced to three years and four months with a right to bail of 1,300 dollars , about 33,400 lempiras at the current exchange rate.
The surgeon was charged in 2023 with the disappearance and murder of the Honduran citizen. This, after a plastic surgery had complications such as bleeding and subsequently the patient did not wake up .
The Public Prosecutor’s Office opposed Malouf being charged with manslaughter because he was initially charged with homicide, a crime that carries sentences of 15 to 40 years in prison.
The prosecution argued that the surgeon decided to hide the victim’s body , who after dying was taken out of the clinic in a barrel and hidden on a farm located in southern Guatemala.
Others convicted of the murder of Floridalma Roque
This Wednesday, Malouf ‘s assistants Susana Rojas and Lydia Moreira were sentenced to three years in prison for having assisted the surgeon on the day the Honduran woman disappeared.
However, they will not go to prison for the same reason as the Guatemalan surgeon, who had already been charged in the past for another case in which a patient died.
At the end of 2024, Roque’s relatives filed legal action against Judge Laynez . The reason was that they considered the decision to change the crime arbitrary, which allowed the surgeon to obtain lesser sentences.
According to article 127 of the Guatemalan Criminal Procedure Code , the perpetrator of negligent homicide will be punished with imprisonment of two to five years. When the act also causes injuries to other people or results in the death of several, the penalty will be three to eight years in prison.
“If the negligent offence is committed by driving a vehicle while intoxicated or under the influence of drugs or medicines that affect the driver’s personality or in a situation that impairs or reduces his mental, volitional or physical capacity, the offender will be sentenced to double the penalty that would apply if these circumstances did not exist,” the article details.
He adds: “If the incident is caused by a public transport driver, the respective penalty will be increased by one third.
