Manuel and Jesus formally jailed Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source - solidarity-request@sjsocial.org Fri Jun 11 11:35:39 1999 10 June, 1999 Dear Brothers and Sisters, friends, companeros: Today, at 12 midday, the Penal Judge in San Cristobal de las Casas gave his decision to formally imprison our brothers Manuel Perez Constantino and Jesus Hernandez Gutierrez to be tried for their presumed responsibility for the crimes of Criminal association and Attacks against communication routes. Soon, several Human Rights Centers will publish their respective communiques with detailed information which we shall pass on to you. At the moment, we are involved in various activities and meetings to analyze the situation. Tonight, I shall send another message with complementary information as well as a few more details from the heart. I would just like to say here that Manuel and Jesus are fine. We are all fine. We were prepared for this and we continue to be strengthened by the abundant grace that in large measure has come to us through you. I won't say goodbye, A synthesis follows of the main irregularities that have been committed during the course of this detention and formal arraignment of Manuel and Jesus. Once again, I want to thank you all deeply on their behalf as well as on my own for all that you are doing there. If God wills, may God's grace continue to abound in the midst of such a terrifying abundance of carrion. un abrazo, jXel. Main Irregularities in the penal case 181/99: Manuel Perez Constantino and Jesus Hernandez Gutierrez, for the crimes of Criminal Association and Attacks against communication routes. Process: They were detained by persons without authority (nor in the act of committing a crime) The Public Prosecutor's Office (MP, for the initials in Spanish) failed to release persons who had been illegally detained. The MP lied about the circumstances of the detention and falsified the facts to give the impression that certain things took place which in fact did not. The Judge took no account that the witnesses for the defence proved that the version of the events according to the accused was, at least, possible. He should have applied the principle of +in dubio pro reo; (similar to giving the benefit of the doubt to the accused), but he preferred to believe the MP's version. Legally: The Judge and the MP attempted to deny the accused their right to be present during the statements of the witnesses for the defence, and to deny their right to further their own defence with the naming of new lawyers. The manifest contradictions in much of the statements made as part of the prosecution were not taken into account. There was no proof of sufficient cause for imprisonment nor for the charges of Criminal Association nor Attacks against communication routes. In the case of Criminal Association, the following elements were not shown: hierarchical organization (chain of command), collective intention to commit a crime, that the accused are part of such a criminal association. In the case of Attacks against Communication Routes, the judges only took into account the testimony for the prosecution and ignored that for the defence. He also ignored the contradictions with respect to time and place. Further details of the case are available at: http://www.sjsocial.org/nuevo_df.html ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-06.12.99-23:21:47-13900