UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention calls on Argentina's Macri to release Milagro Sala.
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention made an "urgent appeal" to Argentine President Mauricio Macri that indigenous rights activist Milagro Sala, who has been behind bars with no charges since January 16, be immediately released. According to the AFP news agency, the United Nations gave the Macri administration two options: free Milagro Sala, or justify any refusal to do so in writing. In the latter case, the Working Group could launch an international case.
The brief of the complaint issued by the UN states that the Jujuy Province government (led by a close Macri ally, right-wing Governor Gerardo Morales) has formulated a "profuse and active state strategy of harassment and criminal prosecution of the leaders of the Tupac Amaru indigenous neighborhood organization (which Sala led) and the Network of Social Organizations of Jujuy in order to prevent protests" in that province.
This, according to the UN, "is an attempt to justify imprisonment in order to restrict their right to freedom of expression."
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, a division of the UN High Commission on Human Rights, issued this appeal as a result of a complaint presented by Amnesty International, the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS - Argentina's most prominent human rights watchdog), and Lawyers in the Argentine Northwest for Human Rights and Social Studies (ANDHES). "The national government must now respond to the United Nations for this arbitrary arrest," declared CELS in a statement.
CELS officials recalled that despite filing criminal charges against Milagro Sala for incitement, unauthorized protest, and sedition on December 15, the state prosecutor appointed by Governor Morales could not obtain court approval to proceed with a criminal case. Sala was nevertheless arrested on January 16 with no charges and no judicial warrant, and after two weeks of arbitrary detention she was ordered released on January 29.
"But the Tupac Amaru leader was not released," CELS lawyers added, "because the day she was to be released, a local judge was called back from holiday in order to approve a separate warrant accusing Sala of fraud, extortion, and conspiracy."
The Macri administration's Minister of Justice, Germán Garavano, refused to reply, except by admonishing the UN "not to interfere with the judicial process, as our predecessors constantly did, whether we like the courts' decisions or not."
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Sleazy Gov. Morales with the sleazy President.
The Macri-chosen Justice Department head sleazoid, Germán Garavano.[/center]
That's one dirty team of fascist scum, is it not! What a treacherous shame they are allowed to have power over the lives of human beings.
Thank you for the facts. Wow.