(IPYS/IFEX) – On 8 June 1999, Judge Elizabeth Grossman Casas of the 14th Criminal Tribunal sentenced Rosa Vallejos, a journalist with the magazine “Caretas” to a conditional one year prison term and ordered she pay 5,000 Nuevo Sols (approximately US$5,000) in civil damages. Judge Elizabeth Grossman Casas is the same judge who last week denied […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 8 June 1999, Judge Elizabeth Grossman Casas of the 14th
Criminal Tribunal sentenced Rosa Vallejos, a journalist with the magazine
“Caretas” to a conditional one year prison term and ordered she pay 5,000
Nuevo Sols (approximately US$5,000) in civil damages. Judge Elizabeth
Grossman Casas is the same judge who last week denied the extradition order
of Héctor Faisal, legal counsel for APRODEV (see IFEX alert of 11 June
1999).
Vallejos was sentenced following a defamation complaint brought by Luis
Augusto Alarcon Schroder, ex-director of the Legal Office of the
Presidential Ministry, in August 1998. Vallejos wrote an article in the 2
July 1998 edition of “Caretas” (#1523), in which she alluded to a 1998
incident in which Alarcon was accused of the murder of his aunt, Lidia
Schroder. The 35th Provincial Prosecutor’s office and the 36th Criminal
Tribunal charged Alarcon with the murder. He was imprisoned until 1991, when
the Supreme Court cleared him of the crime.
The allegedly defamatory edition of “Caretas” brought together various
newspaper accounts of the terms of Alarcon’s acquittal. In 1992, a judge
took the documentation associated with the case in order to review it, but
since that time all the documents have disappeared.
The following edition of “Caretas” (#1524) published a lawyer’s letter sent
by Alarcon in which he made reference to the legal rulings. The magazine
accepted these facts, only to correct them later. Alarcon insisted on having
criminal charges brought, and he instigated them six months later. This
happened, coincidentally, in the same month that the magazine’s editor,
Enrique Zileri, appealed to the Supreme Court to review his own sentence,
which stemmed from a charge brought by presidential advisor Vladimiro
Montesinos.
Rosa Vallejos’ lawyer, Dr. Julio Silva Santisteban, has appealed the
sentence.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to authorities:
of
a fair trial
Appeals To
Alberto Fujimori Fujimori
President of the Republic
fax: +51 1 426 6535Víctor Raúl Castillo Castillo
President of the Supreme Court of Justice of Peru
fax: +51 1 428 0803Jorge Santistevan de Noriega
Ombudsman
fax: +51 1 426 6657Miguel Aljovín Swayne
Attorney General
fax: +51 1 426 2474
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
