(IPYS/IFEX) – On 28 August 1997, in the outskirts of Rioja, department of San Martin, the journalist and owner of Radio “Frecuencia Popular,” Tito Pilco Mori, was found on the street, seriously hurt and lying beside his motorcycle. Six days later he died in a Lima hospital. His state of health prevented him from relating […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 28 August 1997, in the outskirts of Rioja, department
of San Martin, the journalist and owner of Radio “Frecuencia Popular,”
Tito Pilco Mori, was found on the street, seriously hurt and lying
beside his motorcycle. Six days later he died in a Lima hospital. His
state of health prevented him from relating what had occurred before his
death. Pilco suffered severe internal hemorrhaging as a result of having
been beaten. Initial police investigations suggested that Pilco had
suffered an accident while he was driving his motorcycle, and this was
validated by the provincial attorney for Rioja, Pablo Arevalo Flores. As
a result after the initial analysis, and in record time, the case was
considered solved on 19 September 1997 and was officially closed since
“there are no factors that
suggest a criminal element in the events leading up to the unfortunate
death of Tito Pilco Mori”.
** Updates IFEX alerts of 29 October and 5 September 1997**
Initially attorney Jose Manuel Monteverde led the investigation. After
the journalist’s family members protested against this attorney, the
case was transferred to attorney Pablo Arevalo. However, his
investigation did not consider some important background information.
For example, after the supposed accident, the police and attorney
Monteverde asked the family for the motorcycle (that had not been
damaged). It was returned to them three days later with a broken rudder,
a detached muffler, a clutch that was no longer working and other damage
that had clearly not been there before, and the family was not allowed
to press charges.
After a lot of pressure from the media and the journalist’s family, in
October 1998 the investigation was reopened, after an order by Antonio
Ruiz Sanchez, prosecutor with the Second Attorney General’s Office in
San Martin. At that time, the existence of two persons who had witnessed
the “accident” was already known. According to some testimonies gathered
by IPYS, Pilco was forced to get off his motorcycle, and he had been
followed and beaten by six people. From the moment that the
investigation began, Pilco’s family began to receive threats advising
them to stop pushing the case forward. The
family members and others who were close to Pilco accuse Monteverde of
being the prime suspect in having planned the journalist’s murder.
On 1 March 1999, attorney Eduardo Macedo Zapata, who is assisted by
Monteverde, ordered that the case be closed once and for all. No
witnesses were interviewed during the fuller investigation. The previous
investigation, carried out by Monteverde, had included witness
interviews. It had however been carried out without due process. It is
noteworthy, for example, that one of the witnesses (a minor), was
brought in to testify at night, and without accompaniment by a lawyer or
his parents. These and other irregularities, combined with Pilco’s
criticisms of the way justice is carried out in his region, lead one to
believe that his death was not the result of an accident.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to authorities:
impartial investigation is carried out
Appeals To
President of the Republic
Alberto Fujimori Fujimori
Fax: +511 426 6535Attorney General
Miguel Aljovin Swayne
Fax: +511 426 2474President of the Peruvian Supreme Court of Justice
Victor Raul Castillo Castillo
Fax: +511 426 8851Ombudsman
Jorge Santistevan de Noriega
Fax: +511 426 6657Attorney General of the San Martin Judicial District
Antonio Ruiz Sanchez
Fax: +511 094 563 191
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
