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The reparation sought in this case is of a social nature with public and administrative apologies so that these events are not repeated, said the lawyer.
Cuenca
Due to the contagion of two of the three judges, the hearing against 42 police officers for the alleged crime of torture at the Turi Center for the Deprivation of Liberty (CPL) was suspended. The reinstatement of this judicial activity was called for 08:00 this Monday and is the continuation of the process denounced on May 31, 2016.
The case was known in that year, after the dissemination of a security video in which some police officers from the Order Maintenance Unit (UMO) and the Intervention and Rescue Group (GIR) were observed hitting the inmates of the pavilion medium security JC.
106-day sentence for police officers for violence in Turi
In the filming that was made public, dozens of naked inmates were also observed doing squats.
In the first instance, the case was started for torture, but in the process the judges in charge sentenced the gendarmes for the crime of excess of force in an act of service because that was the appropriate criminal offense.
In the second instance, in the Provincial Court of Azuay, everything that had been previously acted on was annulled, which resulted in the case returning to a first-level trial stage, but now for torture, reported Pamela Chiriboga, a lawyer for the Regional Advisory Foundation in Human Rights (Inredh).
And although everything was ready and even the processed uniforms gathered on the ground floor of the Azuay Judicial Complex, when Judge Cayo Cabrera arrived, he declared it failed because his two colleagues who also make up the Criminal Guarantees Court tested positive for COVID-19.
The reinstatement will take place, as reported from Inredh, once the judges return to their duties.
In previous hearings, the judges could not sentence a particular police officer because in the video (which does not have audio), police officers are seen covered from head to toe with what their identity was protected.
Court determined that there was excessive force against inmates in the Turi prison
However, Pamela Chiriboga insisted that the case must be resolved in favor of the inmates and that there is no individualization of the accused, because although their faces are not observed, there is a list of those who were present that day.
The reparation they seek is of a social nature with public and administrative apologies so that these cases are not repeated, she said. (I)
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