(IPYS/IFEX) – The Taxation and Customs Offences Court (SEDTA) rejected a motion filed by Baruch Ivcher’s counsel, Julio Sotelo Casanova, to have a four year suspended prison sentence against Sotelo be declared null and void. The SEDTA judges decided that the appeal for annulment would not be examined any further and that the case should […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – The Taxation and Customs Offences Court (SEDTA) rejected a
motion filed by Baruch Ivcher’s counsel, Julio Sotelo Casanova, to have a
four year suspended prison sentence against Sotelo be declared null and
void.
The SEDTA judges decided that the appeal for annulment would not be examined
any further and that the case should be resolved by the second level court.
Nevertheless, Julio Silva Santisteban, Sotelo’s lawyer, filed a complaint
demanding that the case be examined by the Supreme Court, arguing that the
process had thus far been marked by a series of irregularities.
On 18 June 1999, Judge Nicolás Lopez Trujillo of the first level court
sentenced Sotelo to four years imprisonment, partly for the crime of
altering the Frecuencia Latina television station’s Shares Registry and
Transfer Book. Sotelo was accused of having irregularly transferred shares
to benefit Ivcher’s daughters and to the detriment of the station’s minority
shareholders, who have since become the station’s managers.
Sotelo was first kept in a Lima prison and then moved to a medical clinic
because of his poor state of health. Subsequently, SEDTA changed his
sentence from a detention order to an order to appear in court with a
suspended prison sentence. Sotelo’s lawyers appealed to have this latter
ruling annulled but their request has now been refused.
There are also outstanding charges and orders for the capture of Ivcher, his
wife Neomy Even, their daughter Michal Ivcher, and the former manager of
Frecuencia Latina, Alberto Cabello, in connection with this case.
