Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab in a press conference. File photo.
The attorney general of Venezuela, Tarek William Saab, announced that Venezuela disagrees with UN rapporteurs’ recent statements about the application of Venezuelan anti-terrorism laws against six people convicted of conspiracy.
“The Attorney General’s Office of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela expresses its total disagreement with the position of the United Nations rapporteurs Fionnuala Ní Aoláin and Clément Nyaletsossi Voule who, through a statement, have expressed concern regarding the application of anti-terrorism laws against alleged trade unionists without having any basis for it,” Saab wrote on social media. He also posted his ministry’s official statement announcing the disagreement.
#COMUNICADO….El @MinpublicoVEN manifiesta su #desacuerdo con pronunciamiento de relatores de la ONU.
El Ministerio Público de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela manifiesta su total desacuerdo con la postura asumida por los relatores de Naciones Unidas Fionnuala Ní Aoláin y… pic.twitter.com/yGW2yEPFmk
— Tarek William Saab (@TarekWiliamSaab) August 11, 2023
The statement comes after the two UN rapporteurs expressed concern over the application of anti-terrorism laws against six Venezuelans who were convicted of conspiracy to carry out terrorist acts during the official independence day celebration event in Caracas. The six belonged to a subversive organization known as the Unidad de Resistencia Popular (Popular Resistance Unit, URP). They were convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to 16 years imprisonment.
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An unofficial translation of the Venezuelan Attorney General’s statement is provided below:
The Attorney General’s Office expresses its disagreement with the pronouncement of UN rapporteurs.
The Attorney General’s Office of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela expresses its total disagreement with the position of the United Nations rapporteurs Fionnuala Ní Aoláin and Clément Nyaletsossi Voule who, through a statement, have expressed concern regarding the use of anti-terrorist laws against alleged trade unionists without having any basis for it.
On August 1, Venezuelan citizens Alcides Bracho, Emilio Negrín, Gabriel Blanco, Reynaldo Cortés, Alonso Meléndez, and Néstor Astudillo were sentenced to 16 years of imprisonment by the 2nd Court of First Instance with Jurisdiction in Cases Related to Crimes Associated with Terrorism, Corruption and Organized Crime with National Jurisdiction, for the crimes of conspiracy and illicit association.
The Attorney General’s Office confirms its commitment to peace and human rights and condemns the orchestration of a campaign that seeks to present the false version that the convictions of these citizens were due to their participation in social movements.
As the public was duly informed, these six men belonged to a subversive and conspiratorial organization called Unidad de Resistencia Popular (URP). This group had planned to carry out terrorist acts against the national government, including an assault on a military enlistment post in San Jacinto, Mérida state, with the aim of seizing the weapons stored in that office.
With these weapons, they planned to carry out acts of sabotage on the Independence Day events of July 5, 2022, where the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and the military high command were present.
At the time of the arrests, carried out between July 4 and July 9, 2022, evidence of criminal interest was seized from the six of them, linking them to the aforementioned subversive group.
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Based on the evidence collected, the Attorney General’s Office presented its case against the accused to the Court on August 20 and 23, 2022.
The trial lasted almost six months and had a total of 13 hearings, in which 15 pieces of evidence supporting the allegations were presented, which, after evaluation, led the Court to issue the conviction sentence against the defendants.
It should be clarified that none of the accused presented any evidence accrediting them as trade union members.
The narrative of the six accused being social movements organizers or trade unionists being disseminated in the public defense of the convicted individuals does not imply any type of immunity that exempts them from the application of the law for their participation in acts that threaten the peace and security of the nation.
It is necessary to confirm that in Venezuela, the principles of the right to due process are applied, which include the right to defense and the right of the convicted to appeal the judgment, as they have effectively done.
Caracas, August 11, 2023
(RedRadioVE) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/SF
