After 37 Years And No Trial, Forgotten Prisoner Released

By Brendan Oliver Bergh
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LIMA, Peru – Forgotten, and alone, Juan Navarro languished in a Peruvian prison for 37 years without ever being convicted.  Charged with murder in 1976, he was incarcerated in the Lurigancho prison on August 3 of that year, where he would remain until his story was revealed, without a court date or trial.

The oldest residence of the Peruvian prison has been released after 37 years in prison without a trial. (Photo Courtesy of RPP)

His brain has to fail him as the 76 or possibly 78 year old man has the signs of dementia and can no longer remember details about his life. Only that he has been in prison surviving against the harsh conditions and that he has been incarcerated, “They ruined my teeth from so many hits and they chased me with a knife. … They wanted to slit my throat,” the problem with his incarceration, is that no one knows how he got to be there. Prison and judiciary  officials have no information or records concerning his imprisonment and confinement. A prison riot destroyed any records that would lead to information concerning his crime, or family.

Having spent 37 years in prison, he has officially spent more time in prison than Peruvian statutory regulations allow. Peruvian criminal sentencing statutes do not allow for a sentence over 35 years. Peruvian law also dictates that if you are imprisoned for over 36 months without an official sentence you would be freed. So even had Mr. Navarro been sentenced to the maximum possible sentence for the crime of murder, he would have had have been released two years ago. However these loopholes require someone to file paperwork on your behalf in order to streamline the process. Unfortunately until Mr. Navarro’s story was revealed on the radio, he had no family in order to file his writ.

These violations of habeas corpus are nothing new to Latin American prisons. According to the prison director at the San Pendro prison in Lima, only 1,291 prisoners of the approximately 8,6000 inmates have been sentenced.

Before anyone had the opportunity to file a writ of habeas corpus for Mr. Navarro the government took a proactive step and released the inmate. Demented and without family, Mr. Navarro has been taken in by residential care center that takes care of the elderly that have been forgotten and neglected by society.

For  more information, please see:

CNN – 37 Years In Prison, But Was He Sentenced? – 15 April 2013

La Republica – Freedom Granted To Oldest Lurigancho Prisoner – 11 April 2013

Peru 21 – Freed Old Man Who Was Imprisoned 37 Years Without Trial – 10 April 2013

RPP – Judiciary has Immediate Reease of Juan Navarro Acuna – 10 April 2013

Syrian Revolution Digest: Sunday, 5 May 2013

“Cleanse and Liberate!”

As a pro-Assad militia leader explained that the driving philosophy behind the current operations in Banyas and its surroundings is to “cleanse and liberate” the only coastal town in Syria where Sunnis make up a majority, and as hundreds of Sunni families are indeed being forced to flee, world attention seems destined to focus over the next phase on the allegations just brought by Carla Del Ponte that rebels were behind the use of Sarin gas in Syria! And yet, miraculously, it’s the rebels and their supporters who are being killed and displaced! Cut the bullshit!, pardon my Italian! Had rebels had access to Sarin gas and had they had the necessary knowhow to deploy it, they might have been tempted to use it during their months-long siege of various military airports that keep raining death and havoc on their communities. The fact that they haven’t reflects either a principled stand on their part, lack of access, or both, but in all cases, it makes clear that the Sarin call in Syria has been heeded by the Assadists only, not the rebels. QED

Death Toll: 116, including 16 women and 21 children: 29 were reported in Damascus and its suburbs; 21 in Banyas; 19 in Homs; 10 in Idlib; 10 in Aleppo; 9 in Deir Ezzor; 7 in Daraa; 7 in Hama; 3 in Lattakia; and 1 in Raqqa (LCC).

 

News

Syria Blames Israel for Fiery Attack in Damascus The attack, which sent brightly lighted columns of smoke and ash high into the night sky above the Syrian capital, struck several critical military facilities in some of the country’s most tightly secured and strategic areas, killing dozens of elite troops stationed near the presidential palace, a high-ranking Syrian military official said in an interview. Israel refused to confirm the attacks, the second in three days, and Israeli analysts said it was unlikely that Israel was seeking to intervene in the Syrian conflict. They said the attacks in all likelihood expanded and continued Israel’s campaign to prevent the Syrian government from transferring weapons to Hezbollah, the Shiite militia and political party in neighboring Lebanon that is one of Israel’s most dangerous foes.

U.S. received no early warning on alleged Israeli strikes in Syria, American official says Meanwhile, Syrian official tells the New York Times strike hit elite Republican Guard units; local doctor reports at least 100 soldiers killed.

Syrian Rebels May Have Used Sarin “Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals,” Ms. Del Ponte said in an interview with Swiss-Italian television. “According to their report of last week, which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated.” “This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities,” she added, speaking in Italian… The United States has said it has “varying degrees of confidence” that sarin has been used by Syria’s government on its people.

Syrian rebels enter northern air base The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels moved deep inside Mannagh air base, near the border with Turkey, despite fire from government warplanes. The Aleppo Media Center says rebels captured a tank unit inside the base and that the base commander, Brig. Gen. Ali Salim Mahmoud, was killed. The fighting came hours after Israeli warplanes struck areas in and around the Syrian capital, setting off a series of explosions as they targeted a shipment of highly accurate, Iranian-made guided missiles believed to be bound for Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, officials and activists said.

 

Investigative Reports

Exclusive: Syrian aid in crisis as Gulf states renege on promises Food rationing for refugees planned as $650m pledged to UN remains undelivered

 

Analyses & Op-Eds

Bill Keller: Syria Is Not Iraq t in Syria, I fear prudence has become fatalism, and our caution has been the father of missed opportunities, diminished credibility and enlarged tragedy. The United States has supplied humanitarian aid and diplomatic pressure. But our reluctance to arm the rebels or defend the civilians being slaughtered in their homes has convinced the Assad regime (and the world) that we are not serious. Our fear that arms supplied to the rebels would fall into the hands of jihadis has become a self-fulfilling prophecy, because instead of dealing directly with the rebels we left the arming to fundamentalist monarchies, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and they are predictably using lethal aid to appease the more radical Islamists.

Strikes on Syria Signal an Emboldened Israel … a civil war that has gone on for more than two years has changed Israel’s calculus. Israeli officials are betting that Assad will not retaliate, both because his forces have their hands full already and because any strike against Israel would risk Israeli counterstrikes that might seriously degrade his advantages in the civil war, like airpower. “They don’t want to open a new front that might be the last one they open,” says one Israeli military official. “They would suffer a knockout punch.” One measure of Israel’s confidence was the whereabouts of its Prime Minister: Benjamin Netanyahu left on Sunday for a long-scheduled state visit to Beijing.

My new paper, prepared for a briefing in Washington, D.C. that took place on January 15, 2013, is now out and is titled “Syria 2013: Rise of the Warlords.” It should be read in conjunction with my previous briefing “The Shredded Tapestry,” and my recent essay “The Creation of an Unbridgeable Divide.”

 

“Cleanse and Liberate”

In this leaked video we see a leader of a pro-Assad militia known as Al-Kayyal speaking to supporters during a recent recruitment rally explaining the philosophy behind the current loyalist campaign in the coastal town of Banyas. Al-Kayyak is a Turkish Alawite and leads a small militia of Turkish Alawite recruits fighting for Assad in Syria. The religious scholar to his left is an Alawite religious figure known as Mouaffac Ghazal. Al-Kayyal says that Banyas (a town where the majority population happens to be Sunni Arab whereas the population of the larger province happens to be Alawite) is the only outlet the “traitors” [AKA the Sunnis] have to the sea and could be used to bring enemies from abroad, hence the need to “besiege” and “cleanse” the town, “sooner rather than later.” The essence of their resistance, he says, is to “cleanse and liberate.” Politics is not their concern, he says. http://youtu.be/y0P4rhRjR9I Indeed, the city of Banyasis now being targeted by heavy artillery http://youtu.be/HGGWTJpNdJM

 

Cleanse Your Mind

Meanwhile, member of the UN commission member investigating possible use of chemical weapons in Syria, Carla Del Ponte, made a statement in a press conference in Geneva in which she seemed to assume that rebels were beyond the use of Sarin gas in the incidents under investigation. While she claimed that the results of the investigation provided “strong, concrete suspicions” that Sarin was used, she said that the evidence was not “incontrovertible.” She then added matter of fact that the use of Sarin was “on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities.” She offered no evidence in this regard, but she seems to be referring to official claims made by the Assad regime after an attack took place against the town of Khan Al-Assal for which the regime blamed rebels – a ludicrous and unsupported claim that was nonetheless widely circulated by international media at the time.

However, Del Pone’s statement, as sensational as it is at this stage, does not seem to reflect an official position by the commission itself, as such, an official clarification needs to be issued soon. For the real story in Syria today is the all too visible and ongoing ethnic cleansing campaign against the Sunni population in coastal and central areas in Syria and the repetitive incidents of Sarin gas use in a variety of locations across the country by regime forces. Incidents of the regime use of Sarin have been corroborated by the Americans (shyly), the French, the British and the Israelis.

 

Airport Cleansed!

Rebels took over huge segments of Minnigh Military Airport today. The progress comes after a defector killed the Airport’s chief, Ali Salim Mahmoud, and some of his top men two days ago. This is a rebel commander announcing the development two days ago.

 

Video Highlights

Rebels in Deir Ezzor brought down a government chopper killing its 6-men crewhttp://youtu.be/LjHU9-s5VHw

Unfazed by Israeli raids, regime forces pound rebel strongholds in Damascus City using rockets launchers on top of Mount Qasayounhttps://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151449186943577&set=vb.558523576&type=2&theater Yarmouk Camphttp://youtu.be/v_rqmAOd6B0 , http://youtu.be/RHqkmrtcOPk Southern neighborhoods http://youtu.be/C0zSgzdz5L4 Jobarhttp://youtu.be/YdoetQKoE6c

And warplanes raid Eastern Ghoutah http://youtu.be/vqCRRgyC7y8 ,http://youtu.be/Wd6WrWHpWtU Hamouriyehhttp://youtu.be/GFHHwZpQwio

To the West of Damascus, the town of Moadamiyeh continue to be poundedhttp://youtu.be/bVcSPLsDOQw , http://youtu.be/1nK4hd4unVc

News editor at Syrian Satellite TV, Khalid Khalil, declares his defection and apologizes to the Syrian people for the lateness in announcing his decision, but says he was providing reports to rebels since the beginning of the revolutionhttp://youtu.be/VtTMMjQGWTA

SNHR Casualties Report: Sunday, 5 May 2013

Syrian Network for Human Rights documented 109 victims, Sunday 5/5/2013 all across Syria, most of them in the Tartous costal region: 15 children, 3 fetuses, 15 women, 24 armed rebels.

Tartous: 23 victims
Damascus and countryside: 23 victims
Homs: 19 victims
Aleppo: 10 victims
Idlib: 15 victims
Dier Alzoor: 8 victims
Hama: 6 victims
Daraa: 4 victims
Lattakia: 1 victim

 

SNHR: Urgent Appeal SOS

Urgent Appeal to International Committee of  Red Cross ( ICRC ) and United Nation to stop the 3 days ongoing ethnic cleansing operations;
Three consecutive days during which Syrian Government’s Armed  Forces and Shabbiha committed killings amounted to ethnic cleansing amid silence from the international community;
Dozens of women and children stabbed, shot, burned and butchered as horrifying images reveal the bodies lying on top of each other in the street (we received photos by Skype and email from an activist on the ground who collaborated with SNHR since the beginning of Syrian revolution);
Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) received frequent reports and does not accept any reasonable doubt from Banyas in the coastal region by relatives of the victims, some of them got to Tripoli in Lebanon about extrajudicial killings and executions by shooting into the homes in addition to dozens of cases of sexual violence committed by Syrian government’s armed forces during the storm of the town to the date of this report, ignoring dozens of rules of customary humanitarian law rules;
SNHR urgently appeals to the ICRC, which is, according to the International Human Rights Law (the applicable law in the Syrian conflict), has access to conflict areas in Syria;
In case Syrian Authorities are preventing the ICRC access into towns, we demand the ICRC to address the Security Council to take upon its responsibilities and hand it over from the ICRC to the United Nations and Security Council
Holding responsibilities
Hold the Syrian government fully responsible for the massacre.  The continuing silence and lack of relief in the city from the international community is seen as a green light to continue the ethnic cleansing committed by Syrian Government’s Armed Forces.
Annex and attachments: Extremely horrifying images for women and children slaughtered in one of the  most brutal ethnic cleansing operations in the new era:
Customary IHL Rules have been violated in Banyas by Syrian Government’s Armed Forces:

Rule 1. The parties to the conflict must at all times distinguish between civilians and combatants. Attacks may only be directed against combatants. Attacks must not be directed against civilians.

Rule 2. Acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited.

Rule 5. Civilians are persons who are not members of the armed forces. The civilian population comprises all persons who are civilians.
Rule 6. Civilians are protected against attack, unless and for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities.
Rule 7. The parties to the conflict must at all times distinguish between civilian objects and military objectives. Attacks may only be directed against military objectives. Attacks must not be directed against civilian objects.

Rule 11. Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited.

Rule 53. The use of starvation of the civilian population as a method of warfare is prohibited.

Rule 54. Attacking, destroying, removing or rendering useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population is prohibited.
Rule 55. The parties to the conflict must allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need, which is impartial in character and conducted without any adverse distinction, subject to their right of control.
Rule 89. Murder is prohibited.

Rule 90. Torture, cruel or inhuman treatment and outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, are prohibited.

Rule 91. Corporal punishment is prohibited.
Rule 93. Rape and other forms of sexual violence are prohibited.
Rule 134. The specific protection, health and assistance needs of women affected by armed conflict must be respected.

Rule 135. Children affected by armed conflict are entitled to special respect and protection.

Rule 138. The elderly, disabled and infirm affected by armed conflict are entitled to special respect and protection.

Rule 149. A State is responsible for violations of international humanitarian law attributable to it, including:
(a) violations committed by its organs, including its armed forces;
(b) violations committed by persons or entities it empowered to exercise elements of governmental authority;
(c) violations committed by persons or groups acting in fact on its instructions, or under its direction or control; and
(d) violations committed by private persons or groups which it acknowledges and adopts as its own conduct.

Rule 150. A State responsible for violations of international humanitarian law is required to make full reparation for the loss or injury caused.