After two years, Lima’s thirty-first criminal court is attempting to re-open the case against Heriberto BenÃtez for a supposed “press felony”. BenÃtez is a parliamentary candidate for Somos Perú and counsel for Leonor La Rosa, a former agent with the Army Intelligence Service (Servicio de Inteligencia del Ejército, SIE). BenÃtez explained to “La República” newspaper, […]
After two years, Lima’s thirty-first criminal court is attempting to re-open the case against Heriberto BenÃtez for a supposed “press felony”. BenÃtez is a parliamentary candidate for Somos Perú and counsel for Leonor La Rosa, a former agent with the Army Intelligence Service (Servicio de Inteligencia del Ejército, SIE). BenÃtez explained to “La República” newspaper, that the legal concept of a press felony does not exist, nor is such a crime codified in Peruvian legislation. Nevertheless, he was summoned by the judiciary to appear at a 22 March 2000 public hearing of the sentence.
The accusation against BenÃtez was filed two years ago for alleged injury to the honour of General Baltazar Alvarado Cornejo, former director of the Central Military Hospital. At that time, Benitez stated in a news programme that the high military official was taking orders from the National Intelligence Service (Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional, SIN) and had held La Rosa in captivity in the hospital for more than four months, without allowing her family or lawyers to visit. La Rosa, who is now in exile, was tortured in the “Little Pentagon” (headquarters of the Peruvian army), and later taken to the military hospital.
When the case was heard by two lower level courts, BenÃtez was acquitted: “They stated that I had not committed any crime, much less against the person who filed the charges. I had only expressed my views. Unbelievably, I have learned that the Supreme Court set aside the acquittal in a questionable way, reactivated the case and redirected it to the thirty-first criminal court,” he affirmed.
According to the “Liberacion” newspaper, this is “another typical case of political vengeance”, perpetrated “with the intent of frustrating BenÃtezâs candidacy in his bid for a seat in Congress as a member of the political party Somos Perú”. The lawyer found it suspicious that he was summoned to a sentence reading. “First of all, I will use all possible legal avenues to impede the delivery of this sentence, and I will say right now that I will not be present at this proceeding because I am not allowed to defend myself. I have not been able to formulate a brief expressing my point of view, and furthermore they are summoning me to hear them impose a sentence. The judiciary is not affording me the right to due process,” he declared.
