LA PAZ, Bolivia, Aug 30, (AP): Bolivia’s highest court late Friday threw out criminal charges against former interim president Jeanine Áñez over her role in the 2019 killings of protesters, ordering the flashpoint case to restart in a special process for alleged crimes committed by former heads of state. The contentious decision just before midnight Friday in Bolivia marked a legal victory for the opposition leader, who has spent almost four-and-a-half years in prison on different charges related to the 2019 ouster of her predecessor, left-wing former president Evo Morales, following his disputed reelection.

The sudden twist in her proceedings comes just weeks after Bolivia’s general election boosted the opposition for the first time in decades, raising concerns among critics who see a justice system subject to political manipulation. A runoff presidential election in October pits a centrist pro-business senator against a right-wing former president.

Áñez was arrested as 2020 elections elevating her political rival, leftist President Luis Arce, cut short her stint in power. In 2022, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of terrorism and sedition in connection with her 2019 takeover as a little-known right-wing senator following Morales' resignation under pressure from the military.

Other cases against her, including the one heard Friday dealing with security forces’ killing of protesters under her watch, had landed her in preventative detention but not yet gone to trial. The latest moves transfer key criminal cases against Áñez - dealing with security forces' fatal shooting of 22 civilian protesters in the districts of Sacaba and Senkata - to Congress, where a two-thirds majority must approve the trial before sending it to the Supreme Court.

Right-wing opposition parties sympathetic to Áñez this month won a congressional majority in Bolivia’s election that signaled an end to almost two decades of dominance by Morales’ ruling Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, party. If Áñez scrapes together enough congressional support, her case could be blocked entirely and never reach trial.

The ruling on Áñez came the same day as another prominent opposition leader, Luis Fernando Camacho, left jail and jetted home to a hero’s welcome in his city of Santa Cruz, days after a judge lifted his preventative detention and granted him house arrest. While Camacho will be confined to his home pending trial over his involvement in the 2019 political crisis, generous work-releases privileges allow him to resume his duties as governor of the prosperous eastern province of Santa Cruz for the first time since his 2022 arrest.