(IPYS/IFEX) – Two provisional magistrates of the Office of the Provincial Penal Attorney of Rioja, Eduardo Macedo Zapata and his assistant José Manuel Monteverde Tuesta, have been dismissed from their positions. The resolution announcing their dismissal was issued on 4 May 1999 by the Executive Committee of the Public Ministry and appeared in the state […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – Two provisional magistrates of the Office of the Provincial
Penal Attorney of Rioja, Eduardo Macedo Zapata and his assistant José Manuel
Monteverde Tuesta, have been dismissed from their positions. The resolution
announcing their dismissal was issued on 4 May 1999 by the Executive
Committee of the Public Ministry and appeared in the state newspaper “El
Peruano” on 5 May.
**Updates IFEX alerts of 22 April, 22 March and 9 March 1999, 29 October and
5 September 1997**
Monteverde Tuesta had been implicated in the September 1997 death of
journalist Tito Pilco Mori, who died one week after he was attacked and
beaten by unknown persons. From the beginning of the investigation, the
police and the two magistrates maintained that the case did not consist of
an attack, but of a traffic accident that Pilco Mori had suffered while
riding his motorcycle. The journalist’s family members presented irrefutable
proof that showed that the “accident” had been an assassination.
Furthermore, there are two witnesses who confirm the Pilco family’s
accusations: one of them states that he had eyewitnessed the beating of the
journalist; the other affirms having heard conversations about this
assassination that implicated Monteverde Tuesta.
Despite all the evidence, the Provincial Attorney’s office decided to
definitively close the case on two occasions, after having carried out
partial and irregular investigations in which Monteverde Tuesta had played a
direct role in. Monteverde Tuesta is alleged to be behind this crime
according to the journalist’s family and the witnesses’ testimonies.
The recent resolution also notes a series of irregularities committed by
both magistrates in the carrying out of their duties. These were confirmed
after the Superior Office of the Attorney of the Public Ministry’s Internal
Control department made an extraordinary visit to the Office of the
Provisional Penal Attorney of Rioja in February 1999, at the request of the
Ombudsman. Previously, in December 1998, the Ombudsman together with IPYS
carried out some investigations, the conclusions of which would later be
included in the report that the Office of the Ombudsman would submit to the
Public Ministry.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to authorities:
Ministry, stating that, in your opinion, sanctioning the magistrates was the
appropriate action to take
the case and those who were responsible for Pilco Mori’s death can be
punished
family and of the witnesses, as they could be subject to reprisals
Appeals To
Alberto Fujimori Fujimori
President of the Republic
Fax: +51 1 426 6535Jorge Santistevan de Noriega
Ombudsman
Fax: +51 1 426 6657Blanca Nélida Colán Maguño
President of the Public Ministry’s Executive Committee
Fax: +51 1 428 0969, ext. # 4923Miguel Aljovín Swayne
Attorney General
Fax: +511 426 2474Víctor Raúl Castillo Castillo
President of the Peruvian Supreme Court of Justice
Fax: +511 426 8851Antonio Ruiz Sánchez
Senior Attorney of the Judicial District of San Martin
Fax: +511 094 563 191
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
