Venezuelan police have arrested a judge whose ruling allowed a prominent prisoner to go free, while the country’s president, Hugo Chávez, has called her a criminal and demanded that she be jailed for 30 years.
Judge Maria Afiuni, court bailiffs and defence lawyers were detained after she freed Eligio Cedeno, a high-flying banker and part of a group known as the ”boligarchs” who have grown immensely wealthy under Chávez.
Cedeno was detained in February 2007 and accused of improper currency exchange transactions. A fresh warrant has been issued for his arrest, but his whereabouts remain unknown.
Chávez, who has taken a close interest in the case, responded furiously, suggesting Afiuni had been bribed to facilitate an escape.
”A judge who frees a criminal is much, much, much more serious than the criminal himself,” he said in a televised speech. ”This judge should get the maximum penalty … 30 years in prison. This judge has to pay for what she has done.”
Chávez said he had discussed the affair with the head of the supreme court and had demanded ”firmness”. Venezuela’s independence hero, Simon Bolivar, he said, would have had the judge shot. Soon after the president’s intervention, Afiuni was charged with corruption and abuse of power.
Legal scholars and opposition politicians said the row showed the judicial system had lost its independence and was being subverted by Chávez’s socialist revolution.
Caracas Bar Association president Yvett Lugo said Afiuni’s ruling was in line with the law and her arrest marked a breakdown of the rule of the law and the principle of separation of powers.
Robert Amsterdam, one of Cedeno’s lawyers, said the case was a blow to democratic freedom. ”There was a time that judges who failed to follow Chávez’s instructions risked being removed from the Bench. Judicial independence had been on life support, but sadly, it is now officially dead.”
The judge is being held at a women’s prison outside Caracas, the inmates of which could include people she sentenced, said Amsterdam, adding: ”Her life is at risk.”
The court bailiffs who were arrested have been released, but Jose Rafael Parra, a defence lawyer who was in court when his client was freed, remains in custody.
Before Afiuni’s ruling, Cedeno (45) was held for almost three years at the headquarters of the investigative police, Disip, with no trial in sight, and became one of Venezuela’s highest-profile prisoners.
The judge conditionally released him last Thursday in a hearing where prosecutors were absent. She reportedly led Cedeno through a door and allowed him to take a private lift, avoiding Disip agents. He was last seen on the back of a motorbike.
Chávez supporters said the judge had been paid to facilitate the ”escape” and this showed much of the judiciary remained in the hands of a corrupt mafia.
Cedeno’s lawyers said the ruling was based primarily on the opinion of a UN-mandated panel of legal experts known as the Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions. The opinion, which has yet to be considered by the UN’s Human Rights Council, was submitted to the judge.
Chávez has packed the supreme court with supporters. He has said that the separation of powers weakened the state – while also insisting that the judicial system remains autonomous. Last week the supreme court head, Luisa Estela Morales, said Venezuela had moved from ”a rigid separation of powers” towards a system characterised by ”intense coordination” between government branches. —