VENEZUELA: ILAAD SUBMITS A COMPLAINT TO THE UNITED NATIONS ON BEHALF OF 5 INDIVIDUALS ARBITRARILY DETAINED DESPITE THE EXPIRATION OF THEIR SENTENCE

The International League Against Arbitrary Detention (ILAAD), alongside JusticiaXLibertad have submitted a complaint to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) on behalf of Ms. Yusmelys Elena MEREGOTE PEREIRA, Mr. Erick Ricardo ROMERO ARTEAGA, Mr. Wuadid PACHECO PACHECO, Mr. Danny Enrique  SALINAS QUEVEDO and Mr. Raidel Jesús ESPINOZA FLORES.

FIVE VENEZUELAN NATIONALS  ARBITRARILY DETAINED DESPITE THE EXPIRATION OF THEIR SENTENCE

This action concerns the arbitrary detention of five Venezuelan nationals in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. In October 2014, they were arrested and detained in Venezuela on charges of complicity of an aggravated robbery during which a member of the Venezuelan parliament Robert Serra and his Assistant Maria Herrera were killed. The thirteenth tribunal of first instance of the criminal judicial circuit of the metropolitan area of Caracas found the applicants guilty and condemned them to serve nine years and six months in prison. 

While all applicants were supposed to be released in April 2024, they all remain detained. Their detention without any legal basis despite the expiration of their sentence for the past nine months continues to date, despite the repeated requests of their local counsel asking for their immediate release.

URGENT ACTION REQUESTED TO THE UN WORKING GROUP AGAINST ARBITRARY DETENTION

In these circumstances, ILAAD and JusticiaXLibertad respectfully requested that the Working Group renders an opinion finding the deprivation of liberty after the expiration of their sentences of the five victims to be arbitrary and falling within category I and :

• demand that the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela takes the necessary measures to remedy the situation of the applicants without delay and bring it into line with the relevant international standards, including those set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Covenant;

  
  

• consider that, taking into account all the circumstances of the case, the appropriate remedy would be the immediate release of the applicants and the granting of the right to obtain redress, including compensation, in accordance with international law;

  
  

• urge the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to ensure that a thorough and independent investigation is carried out into the circumstances surrounding the arbitrary detention of the applicants and to take appropriate action against those responsible for the violation of their rights.

ILAAD recalls that the WGAD adopted numerous opinions in recent years concerning arbitrary detention in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and recognized a recurrent pattern of arbitrary detention that might amount to a crime against humanity (Opinion No. 48/2022).