Trial of the accussed of assassinating Piuran journalists begins

(IFJ/IFEX) – On 18 May 1999, at 12:00 p.m. (local time), a Piura Criminal Court, presided by judge Jorge Diaz Campos, began to hear the case involving the assassination of journalists Isabel Chumpitaz Panta and José Amaya Jacinto. **Updates IFEX alerts of 6 May 1999, 18 June, 15 April and 8 April 1998** Only nine […]

(IFJ/IFEX) – On 18 May 1999, at 12:00 p.m. (local time), a Piura Criminal
Court, presided by judge Jorge Diaz Campos, began to hear the case involving
the assassination of journalists Isabel Chumpitaz Panta and José Amaya
Jacinto.

**Updates IFEX alerts of 6 May 1999, 18 June, 15 April and 8 April 1998**

Only nine of the sixteen assailants who broke into Chumpitaz’s house have
been detained. There is a warrant out for the arrest of the seven who are
still at large.

The case is being heard in the Río Seco jail, in front of judges Félix
Feliciano Vásquez and Hernán Ruíz Arias and Piura state prosecutors Justo
Salomon Vásquez and Luis Yaipen Hidalgo of the 2nd Office of the Public
Prosecutor of Piura, and victims’ attorney Carlos Cárcamo Ladines. During
the hearing, defendant Roso Cruz Anastacio, (also known as “Chucki”),
admitted to having shot Chumpitaz.

According to Fidel Quintana Quesada, president of the Peruvian National
Association of Journalists, Piura branch, the court is being asked to shed
light on the true motive for the assassination. Attorney Cárcamo has asked
for life imprisonment for the accussed and he told the Piuran press that
political motives cannot be discounted in the crime that occurred on 6 April
1998, in the El Canizal complex, district of La Union (see IFEX alerts).

Recommended Action

Miguel Aljovin Swayne

Attorney General

Office of the Attorney General

Lima, Peru

Fax: +51 14  262 474

Victor Raúl Castillo Castillo

President

Supreme Court of Justice

Lima, Peru

Fax: +51 14 26 8 851
Jorge Santistevan de Noriega

Ombudsman

Office of the Ombudsman

Lima, Peru

Fax: +51 14 26 7889