**Updates IFEX alerts as noted in text** (IPYS/IFEX) – (Updates IFEX alerts of 1 November, 25, 15 and 11 October 1996) On 14 October 1997, the Sixth Criminal Appeals Court of Lima (Sexta Sala Superior Penal de Apelaciones de Lima) unanimously cleared journalists Nicolas Lucar and Alamo Perez Luna of charges of aggravated defamation against […]
**Updates IFEX alerts as noted in text**
(IPYS/IFEX) –
(Updates IFEX alerts of 1 November, 25, 15 and 11 October 1996)
On 14 October 1997, the Sixth Criminal Appeals Court of Lima
(Sexta Sala Superior Penal de Apelaciones de Lima) unanimously
cleared journalists Nicolas Lucar and Alamo Perez Luna of charges
of aggravated defamation against airline businessman Fernando
Zevallos Gonzalez. The court granted the appeal by ruling that
the charges against the journalists did not constitute a crime.
On 9 October 1996, judge Manuel Encarnacion Toscano had ruled
that the court would hear a US$ 100 million defamation suit
brought by Zevallos, president of the Aero Continente airline,
against Lucar and Channel Four Television. The charges stemmed
from two reports broadcast on the program “La Revista Dominical”
which linked Zevallos to drug trafficking in the 1980s (see IFEX
alerts).
(Updates IFEX alerts of 7 April 1997 and 24 October 1996)
Due to the suspension of the faceless court system in the middle
of October 1997, the case of the bomb attack against the office
of Global Television and Radio Samoa could be resolved in the
public court system, in one of three branches of the Puno
Superior Court of Justice.
In September, the Special Court on Terrorism held its first
hearing in Yanamayo prison. However, due to the misconduct and
indiscipline shown by the four accused, it was suspended. During
the hearing, the alleged intellectual author of the attack, Guido
Mendoza Bernardo, as well as the three ex-military officers
implicated as material authors, Angel Sauni Pomaya, Luis
Barrantes Yanez and Favio Urquizo Ayma, behaved very aggressively
before the judges, causing the latter to suspend the hearing.
It is believed that, according to proof presented by the
prosecution, the four men could each be sentenced to 20 years in
prison.
On 18 October 1996, the Puno offices of Global Television, from
which Radio Samoa also broadcasts, was the target of a bomb
attack which damaged sound and transmission equipment and broke
the windows of nineteen homes nearby. Police indicated that the
individuals who carried out the attack probably had experience in
the use of explosives. However, even though all indications are
that it was likely an act of terrorism, police have not ruled out
the possibility of it having been the result of a personal
vendetta (see IFEX alerts).
