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19Jun15

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Communiqué about the commencement of the trial in the case of
Claudia Julieta Duque

PRESS RELEASE

In an atmosphere of intimidation the oral trial in the case of Claudia Julieta Duque is about to commence

  1. On 24 June 2015 the oral trial will commence in respect of the aggravated psychological torture committed in the case of the journalist Claudia Julieta Duque, correspondent of Radio Nizkor and representative of Equipo Nizkor in Colombia. On this date a preliminary hearing is expected against the former sub-Director of the now defunct Administrative Department of Security (DAS), the creator and the de facto head of the Special Intelligence Group G-3, José Miguel Narváez, and the former directors of Intelligence of that entity, Giancarlo Auqué de Silvestri and Enrique Alberto Ariza Rivas, both of whom are fugitives from justice.

  2. It is expected that Auqué de Silvestri will appear at the hearing and thus his arrest will be effected, given that since April he has expressed his willingness to surrender to the authorities. The authorities, notwithstanding the existence of a new arrest warrant and the fact that they possess the address where the fugitive is located, have done nothing to execute the warrant.

  3. In the case of Enrique Ariza, the Prosecutor's Office ordered the issue of a Red Notice, which strangely was not included in the Interpol databases notwithstanding the fact that this entity acknowledged receipt of the same in October 2014. For this reason, and given that Enrique Ariza is currently in the United States effecting residence and asylum applications, the Specialist Criminal Court Nš 2, which will hear the case during this phase - has requested the Foreign Ministry to petition the extradition of this fugitive.

  4. In recent weeks Claudia Julieta Duque has increasingly been the subject of surveillance, harassment and intimidation, and she has received credible information that a direct attack against her is in preparation. This is particularly due to the fact that the Office of the Attorney General has opened investigations which confirm the work of the journalist in respect of judicial frame-up in the case of the killing of Jaime Garzón Forero in which other officials of the defunct DAS were involved.

  5. These investigations originate in an order made by the 9th Prosecutors Office of the DINAC (Directorate of Analysis and Context) which is responsible for the case of Claudia Julieta Duque who established last year that the DAS was never investigated for the set-up which allowed for impunity of those responsible in the case of Jaime Garzón.

  6. On Tuesday 16th June 2015, in the vicinity of the Specialised Criminal Courts of Bogotá - where this oral phase of the proceedings will take place - a bulletproof vehicle in which the journalist was then travelling was cornered by a motorbicycle and a taxi in a serious act of intimidation which could have resulted in a direct attack if the driver of the motorbicycle had not fled when he noticed that Claudia Julieta was accompanied by members of Peace Brigades International (PBI), an international organisation which has afforded the journalist unarmed accompaniment since 2003.

  7. On the same day the 9th Prosecutor's Office of the DINAC closed the investigation phase against Ronal Harbey Rivera Rodríguez, former detective of the G-3 and currently an official of Migración Colombia, and against Rodolfo Medina Alemán, former director of Counter-Intelligence of the DAS, also a fugitive. It is therefore expected that these two be summoned to trial in the next few weeks. Similarly, the opening of investigations against other members of the DAS allegedly involved in the aggravated torture of the journalist -various of whom are officials active in different State entities, including the Office of the Attorney General- is also expected.

  8. It should be remembered that in November 2014, Claudia Julieta and her family were victims of serious acts of harassment and intimidation at the time when the capture of Rivera Rodríguez became known and also coinciding with the order for investigation into alleged torture by the former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez as the functional head of the DAS; the summons for trial of four former officials of the DAS, one of whom (Carlos Alberto Arzayúz) has admitted charges of torture and is currently awaiting sentence in the proceedings; and the conviction of Hugo Daney Ortiz, former sub-Director of Intelligence Operations of the DAS who has also confessed his responsibility in the torture and persecution carried out against Claudia Julieta Duque.

  9. On 22nd December 2014, the day on which our correspondent was returning to the country following some months abroad, the then driver of the security vehicle for Claudia Julieta and her daughter received a call from a man who claimed to be a member of the National Protection Unit (Unidad Nacional de Protección or "UNP"), and who had all the details of the flight in which she was due to arrive as well as the number plates of the car, telephone numbers and other information about the journalist and her family. It was later shown that this was not an official of the UNP, constituting a further act of intimidation against Duque and her family.

  10. In the months of January to March 2015, Claudia Julieta and her lawyer, Víctor Javier Velásquez Gil, have been followed and harassed in various parts of the city, all of which were notified promptly to the authorities and to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

  11. As an international human rights organisation and aware of the risks involved in this case, the first of its kind in Latin America and one of the few in the world, we once again hold the Colombian State responsible for any deterioration in the security of Claudia Julieta Duque, her family and her lawyer, Víctor Velásquez.

Equipo Nizkor, Charleroi and Bogotá, 19th June 2015
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