Venezuela: justice system facilitates torture of opponents, says UN

New criminal investigation against Juan Guaidó 1:37

(CNN Spanish) -

The International Independent Fact-finding Mission on Venezuela, which belongs to the United Nations, presented a report this Thursday that warns that the judicial system of this country is not independent, it has a “very important role. in repression ”and facilitates the persecution and torture of opponents.

The UN mission claims that it has reasonable grounds to believe that, instead of providing protection to victims of human rights violations and crimes, the Venezuelan justice system has played a significant role in state repression.

The document highlights the erosion of its independence and the lack of sufficient and adequate progress to prosecute and punish those responsible for human rights violations committed by other State actors.

Among them, it mentions security and intelligence officials or public officials identified in the first mission report issued in September 2020. It also points out that the system does not act based on procedures that ensure the right to defense and due process.

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In addition, an alleged fraud of the judicial system is revealed under political pressure from external actors and from within, with the judicial and prosecutorial hierarchies that, in the opinion of the mission, compromise independence.

The UN report highlights that they have managed to document 73 cases in which the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) and the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) raided the homes and offices of detainees without legal orders.

Additionally, they reveal that they had access to information according to which evidence of computers or telephones was seized after having obtained the passwords under duress or torture.

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Credit: YURI CORTEZ / AFP via Getty Images

The mission says that it continues to evaluate cases of “extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, including sexual and gender-based violence, that are occurring in other contexts in the country, and will report on these during the course of his extended mandate ”.

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CNN contacted the Ministry of Communication, the Foreign Ministry and the Attorney General's Office to respond to these allegations, but so far we have not received a response.

In statements issued by the state-run Venezolana de Televisión, Attorney General Tarek William Saab strongly rejected the report.

He added that the country's justice system is governed based on "what is established by the Constitution and the law" and that since August 2017 more than 150 State agents have been convicted of violating human rights. commitment of our institution, of the Public Ministry on behalf of the justice system to protect human rights ”, he stated.

The UN Human Rights Council established the mission through a resolution on September 27, 2019, for a period of one year, to assess alleged human rights violations committed since 2014. Its mandate was extended on October 6, 2020 by two more years, until September 2022.