Bolivian justice extended by five months the detention of former president Jeanine Áñez

A Bolivian judge ordered this Saturday to extend the preventive detention of former interim president Jeanine Áñez by five months in the context of one of the proceedings against him at the request of the ruling party due to the social epidemic of November 2019 which precipitated the resignation of then president Evo Morales.

Carolina Ribera, Áñez’s daughter, reported on her social media that Judge Armando Zeballos has extended her mother’s pre-trial detention for five months with a resolution issued “without proof”, “without proof” and without “any type of legal criterion”.

Ribera also denounced that while visiting his mother in prison, he had found her “in a fetal position, trembling like a leaf, on the verge of famine ”.

“Six months in unjust political prison and the judge continues to sentence her on the basis of fiscal hypotheses, without any proof. If Jeanine Añez dies, I hold the Government and Justice responsible ”, added the young woman.

The new judicial provision was defined during a telematic hearing resumed today after a suspension the day before due to a decompensation suffered by the former president.

On Friday, ñez spoke at the hearing to read a statement in which He denounced that he suffers from anorexia nervosa, that he is a “victim of violence and psychological torture” and that he is the subject of harassment within the prison where he has been serving his preventive detention since last March. for the investigation of the so-called “coup d’état” case. ” state “.

The former interim president suffered a decompensation in the middle of the hearing, it has therefore been suspended until this day.

The Directorate of the Prison Regime said in a statement that Áñez had received medical treatment because of the “slight imbalance which prevented the continuity of his defense” and assured that he was “stable”.

Áñez has been in prison for more than six months in proceedings against her at the behest of the ruling party which accuses her of crimes such as conspiracy, terrorism and sedition for the so-called “coup” of 2019 .

Luis Arce’s government and his party, the Mouvement vers le socialisme (MAS), consider that Evo Morales’ departure from the presidency in 2019 was due to a coup, while his critics argue that the crisis is the result of electoral fraud for the benefit of the then president in the failed general election that year.

The ruling party has launched a dozen processes against ñez, some through the ordinary route and others liability lawsuits, although the current closest to Morales considers that the latter, which must be approved by Parliament, do not correspond as this would amount to recognizing the legality of the transition.

Áñez’s defense requested interim measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for his state of health, while the government of Arce requested that this petition be declared “inadmissible”.

With information from EFE

Read on: