Juan Requesensthen a legislator close to Juan Guaidoreceived an eight-year prison sentence “for the crime of conspiracy,” tweeted his lawyer, Joel García, after a hearing that took place at dawn.
Of the total number of those convicted, 12 received the maximum sentence of 30 years. The rest at 24, 20 and five years, in addition to the eight that the former deputy received.
The Venezuelan prosecutor’s office filed charges of terrorismassociation to commit crimes, intentional homicide qualified in degree of frustration against the President of the Republic, treason and throwing explosives in public places, among others.
The sentence comes exactly four years after the explosion of two drones in the vicinity of a stage where Nicolás Maduro was leading an act with the military. The Venezuelan authorities then accused the government of the outgoing Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos of planning the attack, in collaboration with USA Y Peru.
Requesens was arrested three days later, along with around thirty people, including a councilor who died in the custody of the intelligence service (Sebin).
“These convictions are intended to support the false narrative of power regarding an alleged assassination attempt. They are ‘scapegoats‘” lawyer Gonzalo Himiob, from the NGO Penal Forumwhich handles cases of political prisoners.
The Requesens case
A few days after his arrest, the government showed Requesens, now 33 years old, in a video in which he admitted having had contact with one of the suspects involved in the incident. The opposition denounced that the then legislator had been threatened or drugged.
Before sentencing, attorney Garcia wrote that the prosecution was unable to prove his guilt. “The judge has no way to convict you and you must be acquitted, but our justice is kidnapped.”
Requesens was held at the Sebin headquarters until 2020, when he received the house benefit for jail. It is not clear if this measure will be maintained.
“Eternal repudiation of tyrants and tyranny,” tweeted the condemned man’s father, also called Juan Requesens.
“The dictatorship kidnapped him and keeps him deprived of his liberty as a mechanism of persecution of an entire society that resists,” opposition leader Juan Guaidó also said on Twitter.
They denounce “scapegoats”
Foro Penal -which counted 245 political prisoners in Venezuela as of August 1- highlighted the sentence to 30 years of Emirlendris Benitez Y Yolmer Escalonathat “they were providing a taxi service to people they did not know (who were requested) when they were arrested”.
“There is no evidence linking her to any of these crimes,” said Himiob, who indicated that the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared in 2021 that Benítez’s detention “had been arbitrary and urged the Venezuelan State to release her”, but “none of this was taken into account by the court”.
Nicolás Maduro, in power since 2013, recalled on Twitter the “day in which the enemies attacked the peace of Venezuela.” “We remain firm, united, aware and in the fight.”
Source: Ambito
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