Human Right Watch of Americas
Peru: presumption of guilt. Human rights violations and the faceless courts in Peru.
1996
New York: Human Rights Watch, 38 pp.
derechos humanos, perú, jueces sin rostro, terrorismo, conflicto armado
Resumen:
The incarceration of hundreds of innocent prisoners charged or convicted of
terrorist crimes they did not commit is now an open secret in Perú. While there
may be disagreement about the numbers unjustly prosecuted by Perú´s “faceless
courts,” no one in Peru, including the arquitect of the court system, President
Alberto Fujimori, denies that the problem exists. Those caught up in the system
are presumed guilty and have minimal opportunities to demostrate their
innocence. In recent years, The minister of Justice, the former prosecutor for
terrorism, Fujimori himself, and many lawmakers have proposed the creation of
special mechanisms such as a review commission to remedy defects in the trials,
at least on those cases where there are compelling reasons to believe in the
defendant´s innocence. Yet nothing has been done to establish any such mechanism. In the meantime,
faceless military and civilian courts, conducting secret trials behind prison
walls, continue to sentence Peruvians to decades of imprisonment in life-
threatening conditions without offering them the basic judicial process
guarantees required by international human rights law.
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