(IPYS/IFEX) – On 30 January 2004, at approximately 2:00 p.m. (local time), officers of the Tarapoto Police’s Legal Division arrested journalist Guillermo Navas Chujuntalli, director of “Panorama Regional” magazine. The journalist was arrested at his home, in the city of Tarapoto, capital of San Martín region, following an order by Judge Francisco Urtecho Solís, of […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 30 January 2004, at approximately 2:00 p.m. (local time), officers of the Tarapoto Police’s Legal Division arrested journalist Guillermo Navas Chujuntalli, director of “Panorama Regional” magazine.
The journalist was arrested at his home, in the city of Tarapoto, capital of San Martín region, following an order by Judge Francisco Urtecho Solís, of the Juanjuí Criminal Division. Navas was taken to the Criminal Investigation Headquarters (Jefatura de Investigación Criminal, JEINCRI), La Banda de Shilcayo district, where he was held overnight. On 31 January, he was transferred to the city of Juanjuí and handed over to the judicial authorities.
An order for the journalist’s arrest and detention was issued after Navas allegedly failed to appear in court, in connection with a defamation case filed against him by Justo Pérez Ruiz, former San Martín Law School dean. The journalist was declared a “criminal at large” and the police began searching for him.
In March 2002, Navas published reports in his magazine that pointed to irregularities at the law school. Lawyers Luis Enrique Cisneros Olano and Justo Pérez Ruiz, the school’s dean and former dean, respectively, who were implicated in the reports, subsequently filed complaints against the journalist for “insult” and “defamation”. In 2003, Judge Urtecho Solís ruled on the legal action initiated by Cisneros Olano, sentencing Navas to one year in prison and a fine of 2,000 nuevos soles (approx. US$575).
IPYS was able to speak briefly with Navas during his detention. The journalist explained that in a 15 January letter he informed the Juanjuí Special Tribunal that both his permanent and temporary addresses had changed. Nevertheless, on 20 January, the judge issued a warrant for his arrest.
The journalist denies having been summoned and insists that the judge acted improperly. The journalist’s lawyer, Roberto Cerpa Rodríguez, told IPYS that he would seek his client’s release. He referred to the judge’s decision as an abuse of power and noted that Navas should never have been declared a “criminal at large” without having received a summons at his permanent address in Juanjuí or his home in Tarapoto. The lawyer added that he was planning to file a complaint against the judge with the Regional Judiciary Review Board (Organismo Distrital de Control de la Magistratura, ODICMA).
Cerpa Rodríguez subsequently informed IPYS that Navas was released and summoned to appear in court on 3 February. Adolfo Fasanando, IPYS’s correspondent in the region, who accompanied Navas until Juanjuí, corroborated this information.
