Angel Páez has been summoned by the police’s Judicial District, under order of the Military Court’s Supreme Council (Consejo Supremo de Justicia Militar, CSJM), to testify in a case against National Peruvian Police (PNP) Chief Mario Iván Chávez Farfán, who is accused of treason. Páez is the head of the investigative division of “La República” […]
Angel Páez has been summoned by the police’s Judicial District, under order of the Military Court’s Supreme Council (Consejo Supremo de Justicia Militar, CSJM), to testify in a case against National Peruvian Police (PNP) Chief Mario Iván Chávez Farfán, who is accused of treason. Páez is the head of the investigative division of “La República” daily and a Lima correspondent for the Buenos Aires periodical “Clarín”. Páez was summoned to appear before the Third Permanent Court of the PNP’s II Judicial District, on 4 February 2000.
Páez informed IPYS that he did not appear to testify because he was unaware of the reasons for the citation. He stated that he did not know Chief Chávez Farfán, nor had he ever investigated a matter in which the official was implicated. The journalist found it unusual that he had been called to testify in a case which was initiated in 1997 and that the order was sent to his parents’ home, where he has not lived for a long time.
Páez further commented on the timing of the summons, which coincides with a recent publication in “La República” of one of his investigative articles on alleged negotiations between the government – represented by Army and PNP officials – and the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) guerilla group, held in the central forested region of Peru in October 1999.
The citation, dated 25 January 2000, instructs Páez to comply with the order “as per Article 500 of the Military Legal Code”.
