Bolivia: Bolivian justice rejected Jeanine Áñez’s appeal to stand trial as former president | The de facto ex-president has been in preventive detention since March

Bolivian court dismissed appeal by former de facto president Jeanine ñez, to be investigated in the context of a liability lawsuit and not before ordinary justice by virtue of the request that his status as ex-president be considered. Áñez faces charges for his participation in the coup against former President Evo Morales in 2019.

The Second Criminal Chamber of the Peace Court rejected the ordinary judge’s appeal for incompetence to prosecute former presidents presented by the defense of Añez, who faces charges of sedition, terrorism, conspiracy and genocide, among other crimes for his participation in the coup against Evo Morales.

Requests to the IACHR

On his Twitter account, ñez denounced the decision of the court in the Bolivian capital. “I denounce to Bolivia and the international community that I am a victim of procedural and political violence”He wrote on his Twitter account, where he also asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to rule on the matter. In a report, the IACHR revealed that during the 2019 coup in Bolivia, massacres were recorded by military and police forces against civilians, at least 37 people lost their lives in various parts of the country.

Áñez also faces genocide charges following complaints from the families of victims of the November 15, 2019 crackdown in the town of Sacaba, near the city of Cochabamba, and on November 19, 2019 at the Oilfields factory. the Senkata district, in the city of El Alto.

The international commission presented the document prepared by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), which conducted around 400 interviews and analyzed more than 120,000 files. For the GIEI there were two massacres and 22 deaths in the repression in Sacaba and Senkata.

Prosecutor’s office charge

Last month the The attorney general’s office has filed a formal charge against ñez for acts provisionally classified as “genocide, grievous injuries and injuries followed by death” for the massacres during his de facto tenure. The charge has been presented to the Supreme Court of Justice, which must seek permission from Congress to try it. The next day, we learn that the de facto ex-president tried to commit suicide while awaiting preventive detention, the circle close to Áñez denounced the deterioration of his state of health.

According to his daughter, Carolina Rivera, Áñez twice requested the allocation of rent that matches the former presidents, but this was refused by the Presidency Ministry, who argued that ñez had not legally proven that she was president.

The United Nations office in Bolivia visited him in prison and confirmed that “self-inflicted injuries were found requiring medical assistance”. The UN also said the authorities had allowed one of Áñez’s sons to accompany her to prison until she improved.

Preventive prison

Áñez has been in preventive detention since March awaiting trial for his participation in the collapse of constitutional order in his country. A journalistic investigation revealed that before his arrest, ñez had tried to flee to Brazil to avoid being arrested and tried. Other members of his de facto cabinet have managed to escape justice in Bolivia, such as his presidential minister, Yerko Núñez, and water minister, María Elva Pinckert. As former government minister Arturo Murillo, he was arrested in the United States for receiving bribes from an American company to secure a contract with the Bolivian government, then laundering the bribes. wine through the US financial system.