(IPYS/IFEX) – On 12 February 2006, columnist Ricardo Ramos Tremolada of the newspaper “Perú 21” was arrested by the police at Jorge Chávez airport upon arriving in Lima from the US. Ramos was taken to the Requisitions Division of the National Police (División de Requisitorias de la Policía Nacional) based on a court ruling ordering […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 12 February 2006, columnist Ricardo Ramos Tremolada of the newspaper “Perú 21” was arrested by the police at Jorge Chávez airport upon arriving in Lima from the US. Ramos was taken to the Requisitions Division of the National Police (División de Requisitorias de la Policía Nacional) based on a court ruling ordering him to make a statement, willingly or by force, in a libel lawsuit filed in November 2004 by former-Foreign Secretary Diego García Sayán.
Ramos pointed out to IPYS that he did not know about the ex-secretary’s accusation, filed in the Thirty-fifth Criminal Court. The lawsuit action was prompted by an op-ed piece, published in August 2004, in which the journalist maintained that García Sayán had negotiated the granting of amnesty to terrorists while he was in office. Ramos further stated that, in October 2004, the ex secretary assured his lawyer, Javier Valle Riestra, that he would not file a libel accusation in response to the article. A month later, however, he did so.
Ramos insists he never received any legal notice warning him of the lawsuit. According to Ramos, who lives abroad, the summons was never delivered to his office or to his family’s home in Lima. Ramos was declared a “criminal at large” and arrested on arrival in the country.
On 13 February, judge Giuliana Brindani Farías annulled the journalist’s arrest warrant and he was freed. The journalist’s defense council will ask the judge to dismiss the accusation and to grant him power of attorney.
