(IPYS/IFEX) – On 28 July 2001, the First Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals denied the appeal filed by Alejandra Matus’ lawyer at the beginning of July. The appeal requested that the circulation ban, placed on “El Libro Negro de la Justicia Chilena” (“The Black Book of Chilean Justice”) in April 1999, be lifted. […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 28 July 2001, the First Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals denied the appeal filed by Alejandra Matus’ lawyer at the beginning of July. The appeal requested that the circulation ban, placed on “El Libro Negro de la Justicia Chilena” (“The Black Book of Chilean Justice”) in April 1999, be lifted.
Jean Pierre Matus, brother and lawyer of the author of “El Libro Negro de la Justicia Chilena”, filed the appeal on Saturday 14 July, the same day that Matus returned to Chile intent on ending her book’s ban. The appeal argued that upholding the order prohibiting the book would be illegal since Article 6(b) of the State Security Law (Ley de Seguridad Interior del Estado, LSIE) had been abolished and furthermore, would infringe upon freedom of expression and the right to intellectual property. The court rejected these arguments.
According to information by the online daily “El Mostrador” (www.elmostrador.cl), the court’s decision was made known by the Planeta publishing house, in an article expressing “its profound disappointment at this unexplainable decision.” They added that the judge’s decision “casts doubt on” the new press law with regards to the article repealed from the LSIE, “which would presume an immediate end to the ban.”
The publisher guaranteed that it would not rest “until the courts award a complete reinstatement of freedom of expression and an end to the ban on ‘El Libro Negro de la Justicia Chilena’.”
Matus told IPYS that the only recourse left was to file a complaint appeal with the court, since the court did not even accept the original appeal procedure.
This decision is a setback for Matus, who was able to return to Chile on 14 July after living in the United States for more than two years. She left Chile after being prosecuted and facing detainment under Article 6(b) of the LSIE, an article that was repealed on 18 May with the enactment of the new Press Law.
Maintaining the ban on “El Libro Negro de la Justicia Chilena” is contradictory to the final dismissal of Matus’ case and goes against the terms and spirit of the new Press Law, which abolished the provision that permitted the Chilean justice system to seize and ban the journalist’s book.
The case against Matus remains open, since on Saturday 7 July, after Judge Rubén Ballesteros’ final dismissal of her case, Supreme Court Magistrate Servando Jordán, who originated the complaint against Matus in 1999, filed an appeal with the Appeals Court. This appeal is still under examination.