(IPYS/IFEX) – On 15 December 2006, the Sixth Bench of the Appeals Court (Sala Sexta de la Corte de Apelaciones) confirmed the 2-year 11-month sentence against journalist Julio Balza, accused of having of defamed Minister Ramón Alonzo Carrizalez Rengifo, which had been passed by the Ninth Court of Justice (Tribunal Noveno de Juicio). The ruling […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 15 December 2006, the Sixth Bench of the Appeals Court (Sala Sexta de la Corte de Apelaciones) confirmed the 2-year 11-month sentence against journalist Julio Balza, accused of having of defamed Minister Ramón Alonzo Carrizalez Rengifo, which had been passed by the Ninth Court of Justice (Tribunal Noveno de Juicio). The ruling also calls for the payment of nearly US$12,500 in civil reparations.
In March 2006, Balza, a journalist for the newspaper “El Nuevo País”, was sued by Carrizalez, then the Minister of Infrastructure, for having published several articles criticizing the minister’s performance after one of the bridges along the highway connecting the State of Vargas with Caracas collapsed the previous January.
According to the journalist’s lawyer, Hugo Albarrán, his client is being judged for expressing an opinion about a public matter. Balza’s defense will appeal the ruling.
However, the journalist cannot be sent to jail until the sentence is also evaluated and confirmed by yet another court, the one charged with examining the fairness of sentences (Tribunal de Ejecución).
