Venezuela: Leopoldo López’s collaborator is in prison for a year without starting the trial

Venezuelan journalist Roland Carreño, a member of the team of the opposition politician and leader of the Popular Will party Leopoldo López, served a year in detention this Tuesday without starting the trial against him, denounced his lawyer, Ana Leonor Acosta.

“One year has passed since the arbitrary detention of journalist Roland Carreño. It has been a year full of injustices against the journalist that began with his illegal detention. At the end of one year the trial against Roland Carreño has not started“Acosta said.

The lawyer denounced procedural delay since the arrest in October 2020, and highlighted that in this case “the file was manipulated“, As he assured that it was not a”arrest in flagrante delicto”, As stated there.

“Roland Carreño had already been persecuted by the regime, by the intelligence organs of Nicolás Maduro for the simple fact of thinking differently and being the coordinator of a political party that is Popular Will”, Detailed Acosta.

The Prosecutor’s Office and the court in the case pointed out that the journalist was detained “in flagrante delicto“, And that at the time of arrest”An unarmed 5.56 caliber AM-15 rifle with 17 ammunition was seized”, As reported by the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ).

The journalist was charged with committing the crimes of financing terrorism, conspiracy against political form and illicit trafficking in weapons of war.

Subsequently, his defense reported that he was also accused of “association to commit a crime”.

The attorney general, Tarek William Saab, said that Carreño “is the principal“Financier of Voluntad Popular and that at the time of his arrest he had US $ 12,000 in cash, and that, in addition, conversations were found on his cell phone that accounted for the distribution of another US $ 60,000 for acts of”conspiracy”.

However, the lawyer reiterated that it was “practically kidnapped” and what was it “obliged“To record a video that was used, next to”some captures that are not in the file, to denigrate him, to damage him, to damage his image and to go against his human dignity again”.

Likewise, it stressed that the Prosecutor’s Office “fails”With the requirements that a prosecution of this type requires.

Acosta recalled that Carreño, who is currently detained in a center of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin) in Caracas, has suffered health difficulties associated with high blood pressure and was recently infected with COVID-19 in prison.

The detainee was transferred on September 6 to a hospital in Caracas due to a hypertensive crisis and was diagnosed with COVID-19.

The lawyer added that with cases like this “the violation of human rights is a documented reality“, So he hopes that the next visit of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, and his technical team to Venezuela will serve to”listen to the victims”.