Does not fit. prosecution attributed to the president of the Front for the Defense of the People of Ayacucho (Fredepa)Rocío Leandro, organize an international colloquium to spread ideology terrorist and justify Senderista crimes, but documents show that the organization was in charge of Le Havre Normandie University.
The legal defense of Rocio Leandro Melgar presented before the Eighth Preparatory Investigation Court of the National Superior Court documentary evidence that questions one of the main arguments of the provincial prosecutor specializing in terrorism Ketty Garibay Mascco to request 18 months of preventive detention against the leader of the Ayacucho People’s Defense Front (Fredepa).
They are documents that certify that the international colloquium called “Internal armed conflict (1980-2000) and the Bicentennial Generation” was financed by the Le Havre Normandie University, France, and organized by the Faculty of Social Sciences of the National University of San Cristóbal de Huamanga (UNSCH), and the National Association of Relatives of Kidnapped, Detained and Disappeared in Peru (ANFASEP).
Prosecutor Ketty Garibay, based on information collected by the Directorate against the Terrorism (Dircote), accuses Rocío Leandro belong to a supposed “New Red Fraction” of Sendero Luminoso. And he attributes alleged illegal activities to her in her capacity as president of Fredepa. And she points out as “party activities” -read terrorists-, the organization and financing of the aforementioned colloquium.
The defense of the accused Rocío Leandro Melgar has delivered to the judicial authorities that show that the event had funds from the Le Havre Normandie University, and the support of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the UNSCH, that of Huamanga (UNSCH) and ANFASEP.
The “International Symposium on State Violence in the Peru of the Internal Armed Conflict (1980-2000) and the Bicentennial Generation” was held from August 3 to 6, 2022. It had originally been convened between September 14 and 17, 2021. The pandemic motivated the change of dates.
In addition to Le Havre Normandie University, Others like the University of Chilithe Complutense University of Madrid and the Metropolitan Autonomous University of Mexico joined the event, which was public.
In the pretrial detention requirement, the prosecution points out that in said colloquium, which Rocío Leandro attended as part of the public, “The aim was to decontextualize the reality of the events caused by terrorist criminals,” as well as “to justify the terrorist actions in defense of the so-called ‘political prisoners and prisoners of war’ and in defense of the ‘people’s war’, actions that are related to those carried out by the members of the New Red Fraction of the terrorist organization Shining Path“, to which Leandro presumably belongs.
Prosecutor Ketty Garibay Mascco must demonstrate before the court that the academic colloquium sponsored by important world universities had the purpose of spreading the terrorist ideology of Sendero Luminoso and justify their criminal actions.
“The Prosecutor’s Office accuses Leandro and Fredepa of having organized the colloquium, but that is wrong. The evidence has been presented to the Power of attorney. Fredepa is being made the organizer with the aim of holding them accountable for the issues that were raised in the debates. Rocío Leandro was not an organizer or speaker. Leandro came to the activity as a guest, as a listener, and his participation is turning it into a criminal act,” explained the lawyer for the president of Fredepa, Doller Huamán Cutisaca.
“The organizer of the colloquium is a research group from a university in France (Le Havre Normandie), with the support of other universities and the organization of missing relatives (ANFASEP). They relate the colloquium to terrorism because the term ‘Internal Armed Conflict’ is used, which is a term used by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” said Leandro’s defense attorney.
The academic body of the Université Le Havre Normandie is called the Identities and Cultures Research Group, which is directed by the renowned professor Myriam Boussahba-Bravard.
Among the documents delivered to the Eighth Preparatory Investigation Court, there is the agreement between the University Le Havre Normandie and the Faculty of Social Sciences of the UNSCH. The first grants the second 1,200 euros for the organization of the international symposium. Dean Carlos Infante Yupanqui signed for the UNSCH Faculty of Social Sciences, and for Le Havre Normandy University, its president Pedro Lages Dos Santos.
There is also the Agreement of April 25, 2022 between the Le Havre Normandy University and ANFASEP-Museum of Memory, represented by the presidents Pedro Lages Dos Santos and Adelina García Mendoza. The university awards a subsidy of 2,175 euros for the organization of the colloquium to ANFASEP. Therefore, both the financing and the organization of the colloquium, allegedly terrorist, is documented.
Agreement documents
The agreements signed between the president of the Le Havre Normandie University and the representatives of the San Cristóbal de Huamanga University and ANFASEP.
Charged. Prosecutor accuses Rocío Leandro of having organized and financed an international colloquium.
