(IPYS/IFEX) – After serving one third of his five-year sentence and having benefitted from the “two-for-one” terms under which a prisoner is given one day of freedom for every two days worked in jail, on 27 August 1998 radio station owner Ricardo Palma Michelsen was ordered freed. Judge Nicolas Trujillo Lopez ordered the release. Palma, […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – After serving one third of his five-year sentence and having
benefitted from the “two-for-one” terms under which a prisoner is given one
day of freedom for every two days worked in jail, on 27 August 1998 radio
station owner Ricardo Palma Michelsen was ordered freed. Judge Nicolas
Trujillo Lopez ordered the release. Palma, the general manager of Radio
Miraflores, was serving a jail term at the San Jorge prison for tax
evasion. Palma was to be released by the national body governing prisons
(the Instituto Nacional Penitenciario, or Inpe) within 24 hours of the
decision.
**Updates IFEX alerts of 3 June 1997, and 3 June and 23 May 1996**
Background Information
On 23 May 1997, the Supreme Court chamber specializing in tax and customs
offences had ordered Palma detained in the ongoing tax evasion case which
had opened against him in May 1996. Palma was accused of failing to
disclose earnings in order to evade taxes (sales taxes between 1991 and
1995, and income taxes; see IFEX alerts).
