In the early morning of 11 January 2000, the Peruvian-Israeli businessman Baruch Ivcher Bronstein was forced to flee Spain for Israel, after finding out that the Spanish police were under orders to detain him. The order to find and arrest Ivcher, his wife Neomy Even, and daughter Michal, was placed through Interpol, at the request […]
In the early morning of 11 January 2000, the Peruvian-Israeli businessman Baruch Ivcher Bronstein was forced to flee Spain for Israel, after finding out that the Spanish police were under orders to detain him.
The order to find and arrest Ivcher, his wife Neomy Even, and daughter Michal, was placed through Interpol, at the request of the Peruvian government, in accordance with a 1998 sentencing against him by Peruvian courts.
The measures taken against Ivcher surprised him, because for more than one year he has been under the protection of the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights of the Organisation of American States (OAS) as well as the OAS’s Interamerican Court.
Ivcher arrived in Spain on 9 January, in order to participate in a presentation by the Movement for the Defense of Peruvian Democracy, held at the Spanish office of the Foreign Correspondents’ Association. He was there to condemn the mechanisms that the Winter brothers, minority partners of the Canal 2 television station, used to abitrarily and illegally increase their percentage of shares from forty-six per cent to sixty per cent, thus becoming majority shareholders.
Although it was never confirmed which judicial process led to the order for his arrest, while in exile Ivcher has had to defend himself against two outstanding cases. In the case concerning the company Productos Paraíso, Ivcher is accused of tax fraud and avoiding customs debts. He was further accused of adultering Canal 2’s minutes book in the Frecuencia Latina case.
Due to Ivcher’s sudden departure, a video Ivcher recorded hours before departing for Israel was shown in the aforementioned presentation. In the video, the businessman condemned the Peruvian government’s pursuit of himself and other journalists who report on corruption. Participating in the meeting were Michel Azcueta, a Lima alderman, José Antonio Gimbernat, the president of the Spanish Federation of Associations for Human Rights (Federacion de Asociaciones de los Derechos Humanos en España) and Álvaro Vargas Llosa and Iván García, two Peruvian journalists who supported Ivcher.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to authorities:
– protesting Ivcher’s persecution by the Peruvian courts
Appeals To
APPEALS TO:
Alberto Fujimori Fujimori
President of the Republic
Fax: +51 1 427 6722 / 426 6535
Alberto Bustamante Belaunde
President of the Council of Ministers
Fax: +51 1 447 1628 / 475 0689
Jorge Santistevan de Noriega
Ombudsman
Fax: +51 1 426 6657
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
