(IPYS/IFEX) – On 2 October 2006, Lima’s Second Tribunal declared the charge against journalist Mauricio Aguirre Corvalán, for the crime of revealing national security secrets to the detriment of the state, to be groundless. The tribunal ruled that no crime was committed and accepted the arguments presented by the defence. Aguirre was accused by the […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 2 October 2006, Lima’s Second Tribunal declared the charge against journalist Mauricio Aguirre Corvalán, for the crime of revealing national security secrets to the detriment of the state, to be groundless. The tribunal ruled that no crime was committed and accepted the arguments presented by the defence.
Aguirre was accused by the attorney general (Ministerio Público) of revealing state secrets on the television programme “Cuarto Poder” in Lima. The prosecutor asked for a sentence of 8 year’s imprisonment and the payment of 600 thousand nuevos soles (approx. US$188,000) as civil reparation. The prosecutor general’s office (Fiscalía) and the ad hoc prosecutor’s office (Procuraduría ad hoc) are appealing the decision with the Supreme Court.
IPYS believes the charge was itself illegal, since the prosecutor had ignored Law 27806, which deals with transparency and access to public information, and is the only law that, since 2003, regulates classified information.
It was the prosecutor himself who classified as “state secrets” the documents published by the journalist, thereby violating Law 27806, which stipulates the body authorized to make such classifications and the procedures it should follow.
The charge against Aguirre stems from the broadcast, in September 2003, of three videos taped between August and October 1998 in which former president Alberto Fujimori appears in a meeting of the National Defence Council discussing the 1981 war between Peru and Ecuador, the price of Sukhoi airplanes in international markets and the decision to negotiate the closure of the border with former Ecuadorian president Jamil Mahuad.
