The political prisoner was sentenced although his release was ordered

On May 22, 2023, what seemed like the end of six years of injustice became the continuation of a process full of vices against the political prisoner Junior Misael Estrella. Despite being acquitted of all charges against him, he was not released. This Thursday, September 5 at 6:50 pm, he was sentenced to 22 years and six months.

This is about the political prisoner of Carabobo with more time behind bars. He was arrested in May 2017, when he went out to protest in the La Pradera housing estate, in the municipality of San Joaquín, a few meters from the Autopista Regional del Centro (ARC), motivated by the critical economic situation he was experiencing.

The next day, uniformed officers from various security forces arrived at his house. They stopped his brother at the door, put a bag over Junior’s head and took him away as well. A few days later, the brother was released, but he was accused of being the perpetrator of the crime. murder of an official of the Carabobo Police.

Three trials against this political prisoner

Junior Misael Estrella went through three different trials. When the first one was ending, the judge who was to pass sentence died and the process started from scratch. The lawyers of this political prisoner were convinced that the sentence would be an acquittal, when the trial began again in Court Number 7 of the state of Carabobo, represented by Judge Irma Gabriela Gil, who decides that Misael Estella is innocent and orders his release. release.

Sentence not complied with, since Criminal Forum They filed a complaint and took various legal actions. But nothing achieved his freedom. “The decision to keep Junior Misael Estrella in prison was by order of the former president of the circuit, Alejandro Chirimelli, and this was reported even to the Constitutional Court,” said his lawyers.

To acquit the political prisoner They removed the judge and decided to try the case again, this time before the Third Acting Trial Judge, Luis Francisco Ovalles Landaeta, who, according to the lawyers, was Chirimelli’s right-hand man at the time.

“After re-trialing and proving all the violations of this young man’s human rights, he was convicted. He became the first political prisoner with a sentence of this type during the administration of the new president of the circuitErwin Fernández Zerpa. Now we have to add the arrests in the recent elections where he prevented access to the private defense of the protesters,” his lawyers recalled.

Junior Misael Estrella spent the first five years in the cells of the Scientific, Criminal and Criminal Investigation Corps (CICPC) in Mariara, in the Diego Ibarra municipality. Now he is in the cells of the CICPC Güigüe, in the Carlos Arvelo municipality.

According to data from the Penal Forum, there are currently 283 political prisoners in Carabobo, the majority derived from the post-electoral context.