They coerce detainees in protests to “admit” crimes

The NGO Provea reported this Friday that detained after the July 28 electionsin the context of opposition protests, are pressured and threatened to “admit crimes that the Public Ministry (MP) has accused them of without evidence” and “without guarantees” to “due process”, according to complaints received by the organization of relatives of those arrested

Through “subjection to torture and cruel treatment”which include “beatings, denial of food and medicine, and restrictions on receiving visitors.”

«They would be forced to sign and put their fingerprints on blank paperswhich constitutes a massive procedural fraud and a new and open violation of the judicial guarantees of the detainees,” he said. Providewithout specifying whether he received any type of evidence, in addition to the testimonies of family members, to support the claim.

Likewise, he recalled that the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has established that the “concept of torture and treatment”, as well as “cruel punishments”, is not limited to “practices of physical or psychological violence”, but also includes “detention conditions that do not respect human dignity”such as “cases of overcrowding” and “bad prison conditions”, among others.

Relatives of detainees report

According to Provea, the family members’ complaints come from detainees in the prisons of Tocuyito, Tocorón, the Rodeo and Las Crisálidas.

After the presidential elections, more than 2,400 people were arrested, according to figures from the Executive, in the context of massive protests against the official result that gave the re-election to President Nicolás Maduro, a victory that has been questioned inside and outside the country.

The detained people, Provea noted, are being “accused of terrorism”a crime that, according to Venezuelan legislation, carries penalties of between 25 to 30 years in prison.

«The high number of people accused of terrorism by the Maduro Government and the co-opted Venezuelan justice administration system ratify what several United Nations rapporteurs have described as ‘chronic abuse’ of anti-terrorism legislation“said the organization.

The Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office accuses the protesters of generating “violence” and “vandalism” during the protests, thus affecting the headquarters of public organizations, while the largest opposition coalition, which denounces the electoral result as “fraudulent”, points to the agents of security of the “repression” state.