Impunity - Peru

IMPUNITY/PERU Resolution of the Midyear Meeting Caracas, Venezuela March 28 - 30, 2008 WHEREAS on April 21, 2004 Alberto Rivera Fernández, host of the program “Transparencia” broadcast by radio station Frecuencia Oriental in Pucallpa, was murdered, the perpetrators were sentenced but the alleged masterminds remain free, the oral trial of the latter was plagued by irregularities, to the point that their acquittal was not appealed by the representative of the District Attorney’s Office that just days earlier had maintained the charge, and currently the case is before the Supreme Court for it to be quashed WHEREAS on August 2, 1984 journalist Jaime Ayala Sulca, correspondent of the newspaper La República, entered the Peruvian Navy base in Huanta state, Ayacucho province, and disappeared, the representative of the District Attorney’s Office filed a badly-worded accusation that did not single out the actions of those allegedly responsible for his disappearance, for which reason it was declared null and void in part by the National Criminal Court , with one of the accused, however, being acquitted, and the case currently is in the Ayacucho 1st Criminal Prosecutor’s Office and the district attorney is continuing with the investigations WHEREAS on February 14, 2004 journalist Antonio De La Torre Echeandía, host of the program “El Equipo de la Noticia” broadcast by Orbita radio station, was murdered in the city of Yungay, Ancash province, the alleged masterminds were sentenced by the Ancash First Criminal Court (among them the former mayor of that city), they later, however, being acquitted in a controversial decision by the First Criminal Court of the Supreme Court , and on September 18, 2007 Moisés Julca Orillo, alleged perpetrator of the crime, was arrested and in the third week of March 2008 the oral proceedings were begun WHEREAS Miguel Pérez Julca, director of the program “El Informativo del Pueblo,” broadcast by radio station Éxitos in Jaen, Cajamarca province, was murdered on March 17, 2007, the alleged killers were arrested and will be put on trial, but one of the perpetrators has not yet been detained and the oral proceedings will begin on April 7, 2008 WHEREAS Principle 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states “Freedom of expression and of the press are severely limited by murder, terrorism, kidnapping, intimidation, the unjust imprisonment of journalists, the destruction of facilities, violence of any kind and impunity for perpetrators. Such acts must be investigated promptly and punished harshly”: THE IAPA MIDYEAR MEETING RESOLVES to express to the judicial authorities its deep concern that these crimes committed against journalists in the course of their doing their job may remain unpunished to call upon the authorities to investigate and punish those responsible of having engaged in irregularities with the aim of showing favoritism in the trial of the alleged perpetrators of the said crimes against journalists to insist to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Dr. Francisco Távara Córdoba, and the Peruvian Attorney General, Dr. Gladys Echaiz, that they investigate promptly and in depth the disappearance of Jaime Ayala Sulca and the murder of journalists Antonio De La Torre Echeandía, Alberto Rivera Fernández andf Miguel Pérez Julca so as to bring the perpetrators and the masterminds to justice to urge the president of the Judiciary, Dr. Francisco Távara, to establish the mechanisms required for the implementation of a Special Court that guarantees due process in offenses against Freedom of the Press and Expression, in accordance with his proposal made during the Hemisphere Conference on The Judiciary, the Press and Impunity held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in July 2007.