WHEREAS On April 21, 2004, Alberto Rivera Fernández, host of the program Transparencia on the Frecuencia Oriental radio station of Pucallpa was murdered;
WHEREAS the perpetrators were convicted, but not the presumed instigators, and in the court trial of the latter, a number of irregularities were found;
WHEREAS the Executive Council of the Judicial Branch, through Administrative Resolution No. 187/2010 of May 26, 2010, in effect from its publication in the official daily El Peruano on November 5, 2010, widened the jurisdiction of the National Criminal Court and the Supraprovincial Criminal Courts of Lima to recognize the following crimes against journalists in the exercise of their duties: homicide; murder; grave injury; abduction; and extortion;
WHEREAS on January 27, 2011, the Transitory Criminal Section of the Supreme Court voided the decision of the Third Criminal Section with Free Defendants of the Supreme Court of Lima, which had absolved the presumed instigators of the crime against journalist Alberto Rivera, that is, the former mayor of the Provincial Municipality of Coronel Portillo, Luis Valdez Villacorta, and City Manager Solio Ramírez, and ordered that a new trial be held;
WHEREAS the Supreme Court has not spoken on the request of the attorneys of the family of journalist Rivera that the case be taken on by the National Criminal Court. On the contrary, the case file was sent to the Third Penal Section with Free Defendants, the same one that had previously absolved the presumed instigators. Before said Court, the attorneys of the Rivera family, with the support of Administrative Resolution No. 187/2010, requested that the case be recognized by the National Criminal Court;
WHEREAS on April 1, 2011, the Third Criminal Section with Free Defendants notified the attorneys of the Rivera family of the Act of Judgment that states that the trial of the presumed instigators of the crime against journalist Rivers will begin on April 25, so that said Court will once again handle the judgment of the mentioned individuals. However, the Third Court with Free Defendants did not respond to the request of the attorneys of the Rivera family to have the case recognized by the National Criminal Court. Therefore, on April 4, the attorneys for the civil party submitted a new appeal requesting cancellation of the Act of Judgment;
WHEREAS next April 21, 2011, seven years will have passed since the murder of journalist Alberto Rivera. However, up to the present time, not all of those involved in this occurrence have been sanctioned;
WHEREAS Principle Four 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 MID-YEAR MEETING OF THE IAPA RESOLVES:
to express to the President of the Judicial Branch, Dr. César San Martín, the concern of the Inter American Press Association that the emblematic trial for the murder of journalist Alberto Rivera has not been transferred to the Criminal Court, the judicial level that since November, 2010 has covered cases of murder and other crimes against journalists in the exercise of their duties of informing;
to exhort the President of the Judicial Branch, Dr. César San Martín to take appropriate measures so that the trial of the presumed instigators of the crime against journalist Alberto Rivera be carried out in an impartial manner in respect of existing law.
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Madrid, Spain
