(IPYS/IFEX) – Ecuadorian journalist Wilson Cabrera was sentenced to three months in prison for reporting on irregularities in the administration of government offices and the justice system. Thirty-seven year old Cabrera founded the newspaper “El Observador” five years ago and Radio Canela FM eight months ago, in Macas, a province of Morona Santiago, located in […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – Ecuadorian journalist Wilson Cabrera was sentenced to three months in prison for reporting on irregularities in the administration of government offices and the justice system.
Thirty-seven year old Cabrera founded the newspaper “El Observador” five years ago and Radio Canela FM eight months ago, in Macas, a province of Morona Santiago, located in Ecuador’s Amazonian region, about 420 kilometres southeast of the capital, Quito.
The journalist was and is still being pursued by those accused of the irregularities, who launched a court case against him. At the end of that impartial process, Cabrera was sentenced to three months in prison and found guilty of “damages” for having hurled “serious non slanderous insults”.
Since the sentence was handed down on 28 November 2000, the reporter has remained in hiding. Five months after the sentencing, new information and documents have emerged that provide proof of the irregularities committed in the province, the same irregularities which were the cause of the case launched against Cabrera.
According to a number of certified public documents, there is good reason to question the administration of the justice system in the province.
The National Judiciary Council (Consejo Nacional de la Judicatura, CNJ) imposed sanctions against Macas Court judges. On 16 November 1999, the council sentenced Judges Timoteo Velín, Olmedo Meneses and Ramiro Flores to “a fine of fifty percent of the minimum salary they earn as justices,” for procedural irregularities in traffic and insult cases.
On 29 November 2000, the CNJ suspended Macas Court Judges Flores, Meneses and Enrique Quintanilla for sixty days without pay and issued a warning against Court President Velín, for irregularities in the administration of justice and other accusations filed against them.
In letters written in April 2001, Velín admitted that there had been problems. He reported to the head of the CNJ Human Resources Commission, Tomás Rodrigo Torres, that Quintanilla had not returned to work but each month submitted medical certificates claiming he was ill, so that he could continue receiving his salary. Velín asks for verification of Quintanilla’s illness and for the charges to be withdrawn, so that the situation in the only courtroom of the Macas Court can return to normal.
Deputy Kaiser Arévalo recently confirmed that there had been irregularities, adding that Supreme Court Justice President Galo Pico told him that these judges should be fired. The national judicial workers’ president, Luis Muñoz, also declared that the judges should be immediately removed from their posts.
Other irregularities have also been committed in this province and are being investigated by the Anti-corruption Commission (Comision Anticorrupcion). For example, Morona Mayor Washington Vallejo, elected by the PRE party, was the Civil Registry provincial head, having requested a licence without pay for his candidacy. However, on 3 April, National Director of the Civil Registry Jorge Velasco provided certified copies “of the salary and traveling expenses paid to Washington Vallejo from January to August 2000”.
According to Article 101 of the constitution, civil servants can be candidates and hold a licence without pay as of the registration date of their candidacy. Vallejo registered his candidacy on 17 March 2000. According to the head of the Supreme Electoral Tribune, Carlos Aguinaga, Vallejo should be dismissed by the municipal council upon substantiation of this case.
In another irregular action, Vallejo sold a radio frequency without the knowledge of the National Radio and Television Council (Consejo Nacional de Radio y Television, CONARTEL), in violation of Article 18 of the Broadcasting Law. The private contract of sale was registered at the Macas Second Notary’s office on 5 September 1996. On 27 April 2000, CONARTEL noted that “they had not authorised the sale of equipment and other goods of Morona AM 1380, listed until the present date under Washington Vallejo’s name as the licensee.”
CONARTEL, in official letter 0449, addressed to the second judge of Morona’s Criminal Court, Milton Ávila, noted “that a request for the transfer or sale of the equipment to Bolívar Cobos [to whom Vallejo sold the frequency] does not exist.”
Cobos has taken Vallejo to court. Controller Luis Gomez of the Morona Criminal Court accused Vallejo of fraud, but Judge Ávila – the same judge who sentenced journalist Cabrera – stopped the case.
For having reported on these irregularities, Cabrera was taken to court and sentenced to three months in prison for “serious non slanderous insults”.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to authorities:
– calling for an investigation into the administration of the case which led to Cabrera’s sentencing, and requesting that the court’s decision be repealed
Appeals To
APPEALS TO:
Dr. Gustavo Noboa
President of the Republic
E-mail: saladeprensa@presidencia.ec-gov.net
Dr. Galo Pico Mantilla
President of the Supreme Court
E-mail: pres-csj@access.net.ec
Dr. Ramiro Larrea Santos
President of the Anticorruption Commission
E-mail: coatinco@ecuanex.net.ec
Dr. Hugo Quevedo
President of the National Congress
E-mail: dpcn@rdyec.net
Dr. René de La Torre
President of the Constitutional Tribunal
Fax: +593 2 569 861
Dr. Carlos Aguinaga
President of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal
E-mail: tspresid@uio.satnet.net
Dr. Juan de Dios Parra
President of the Latin American Human Rights Association
E-mail: aldhu@ecuanex.net.ec
Dr. Julio Prado
President of the Ecuador National Commission on Human Rights
E-mail: jprado@uio.satnet.net
Monsignor José Mario Ruiz
President of the Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference
E-mail: confeps@uio.satnet.net
Flora Proaño de Simancas
President of the National Journalists Union
E-mail: simancas@hoy.net
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
For further information, contact Güido Lombardi or Jenny Ca
