(IPYS/IFEX) – On 24 August 2006, State Prosecutor Pedro Angulo Arana requested a four-year prison sentence for journalist Humberto Ortiz Pajuelo, accused of committing a crime against the administration of justice by concealing evidence. The requested penalty also includes the payment of 10,000 nuevos soles (approx. US$ 3,200) in civil reparations. Ortiz has been charged […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 24 August 2006, State Prosecutor Pedro Angulo Arana requested a four-year prison sentence for journalist Humberto Ortiz Pajuelo, accused of committing a crime against the administration of justice by concealing evidence. The requested penalty also includes the payment of 10,000 nuevos soles (approx. US$ 3,200) in civil reparations. Ortiz has been charged with concealing evidence and negotiating its sale, thereby interfering with a criminal investigation.
Prosecutor Angulo, of the Fourth State Prosecutor’s Office Specializing in Crimes of Corruption by Civil Servants, had already shelved the accusation against Ortiz, but he re-opened the investigation after receiving orders by the prosecutor general for criminal cases, María Loayza Garate, who did not approve the senior prosecutor’s ruling.
In 2004, the journalist quoted an audio recording during an investigation in which the then-chief of the National Intelligence Council, César Almeyda, appeared to be blackmailing General Óscar Villanueva. According to Ortiz, the audio tape was in possession of the source who gave him the information. But the prosecutor accused the journalist of concealing the tape and attempting to sell it to a third party, obstructing the investigation that had been initiated against Almeyda.
IPYS feels that the accusation against Ortiz cannot be justified, since the action for which he has been charged is not a crime under Peruvian law. The journalist’s aim was to broadcast the information, not to hide it.
IPYS also maintains that certain elements of the judicial resolution could lead to restrictions on investigative journalism, as they assume that journalists should turn over to the courts any information regarding criminal behavior that is not yet published. In view of all this, IPYS considers that the new ruling sets a serious precedent and requests that the accusation against Ortiz be shelved.
Ortiz lives in Miami but has declared to a local newspaper that he will return to Peru and appear before the court.
