Today surprising news arose from Vrigny’s judicial and executive process against former generals and members from the High Command of the country’s previous dictatorship. Former dictator Samuel Romer and general Victor Teryz have been sentenced to life in prison after two separate corruption scandals as well as human rights abuses during the dictatorship.
Both generals had enjoyed relative immunity from the SPV-led Government’s prosecution, as they were ultimately responsible for the authoritarian regime’s downfall. However, it is known that the Constitution they elaborated didn’t allow for a multi-party democracy, had several restrictions on political expression and still gave the army too many privileges, being the main one complete immunity from the new Republic’s prosecution.
With the new liberal Constitution Lorena Ballons, the SPV and LPV wrote, these privileges were swiftly taken away from the military. Many knew about the complete freedom the military had over Vrignyans; at least some soldiers under influential officers. Many thought that Samuel Romer and Victor Teryz were on a temperate part of the military; Samuel Romer ruled as a conservative, he ruled to preserve what had already been done, without any major decisions on his part. Victor Teryz was seen as a democrat, as he argued his own soldiers and their families should have a say on Vrigny’s decisions. Samuel Romer, after 16 years of leadership, was eventually convinced by Victor Teryz that the dictatorship was no longer fit for these modern times, and that it was keeping Vrigny backwards.
However, it wasn’t unsurprising to find out that, as members of the High Command, they had a dark side they were hiding, successfully so far. As for Victor Teryz, it turns out he was rallying up his troops to cause a civil war to erupt in Vrigny in case Samuel Romer didn’t accept his offer. This is not his charge, as he was conspiring against a now, non-existing government. Still, not only was he smuggling weapons belonging to the Vrignyan Armed Forces to other countries back then in order to keep the conflict going, he was simply embezzling part of the massive military funding the High Command spent every year. With these ways he eventually amassed up to 1.2 billion Cernics, which he then used to bribe Samuel Romer to finally give up on the dictatorship.
Meanwhile, Samuel Romer’s charge was simple. Accepting Victor Teryz’s bribe and allowing the other members of the High Command to roam free and perform their crimes under his leadership, as well as attempting to give them immunity for the rest of their lives, was enough for the Supreme Court of Vrigny to charge him.
With these sentences, Lorena Ballons’ Government has effectively dealt with all of the dictatorship’s last High Command members, except 1: Michail Berunt, now a pretty proactive member of the ISPfWL. Representatives of the Old Guard, the Lawfenist political party, have now agreed to keep out of the Vrignyan Parliament as a protest to the Ballons’ government unlawful arrests.
