In a statement, more than 60 NGOs rejected the summons of Óscar Murillo, director of Provea, to the Cicp. They pointed out that the summons did not indicate the quality procedural in which the presence of Murillo is required, nor his connection with an alleged crime of hate. «This shows possible vices to the due processwhich we hope will not be maintained during the ongoing investigation,” they noted.
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) signed a statement expressing their concern that it “persecutes” those who are dedicated to the promotion and defense of fundamental rights. This after the director of the Venezuelan Human Rights Education-Action Program (Provea), Oscar Murillo, was summoned to testify before the Scientific, Criminal and Criminal Investigations Corps (Cicpc), for an alleged investigation carried out by the organization in San Cristobal, in Táchira.
In it releasepublished on the Access to Justice website, the NGOs highlighted that the summons did not indicate the quality procedural in which the presence of Murillo is required, nor his connection with an alleged «crime of hate” provided for in the legislation Venezuelan. «This shows possible vices to the due processwhich we hope will not be maintained during the ongoing investigation,” he said.
The organizations warned that this is an act of criminalization of the defense of human rights, as well as the rights to freedom of association and freedom of expression. Likewise, they stated that the call could be an attempt to intimidate and silence those who defend human rights in Venezuela.
They stressed that human rights organizations, including Provea, have been subject to attacks, intimidation and, in some cases, deprivation of liberty and harassment for their brave work for more than 30 years. They recalled that the threats against Provea have been repeated, public and in the media.
*Read also: Provea Coordinator after Cicpc summons: It definitely has an intimidating effect
They considered that the call to Murillo occurs in the midst of a worsening of the acts of harassment and persecution of the Venezuelan State towards the actors who represent the defense of the country’s civil and political liberties.
“We condemn that a State in whose Constitution called democratic, of Law and justice intimidates and persecutes those who fight for justice and dignity human. The defense of human rights and the protection of those who defend them is not only a question of justice, but a moral duty,” they added.
They recalled that in Venezuela there are human rights defenders and activists detained for carrying out their work. They mentioned the case of Rocío San Miguel, director of the NGO Citizen Control, detained since February 9. They also mentioned the case of Javier Tarazona, director of the NGO FundaRedes, deprived of his liberty since July 2, 2021 and subjected to four restarts of the trial against him, among others.
They pointed out that in recent years a series of legal instruments have been approved aimed at closing civic space and increasing the siege on the work of civil society organizations in all its expressions, including the Law on Supervision, Regularization, Action and Financing of non-governmental organizations and social organizations and the Law against Hate.
Murillo attended this Wednesday the 20th at the headquarters of the Scientific, Criminal and Criminal Investigation Corps (Cicpc) to respond to a summons from the organization for the alleged commission of a crime contemplated in the Law against Hate.
After five hours, the university professor left the Cicpc headquarters. He was received by the co-founder of the NGO Raúl Cubas, human rights activists and citizens who came to accompany him under the cry “Provea is not alone, Provea defends itself.”
«I think this definitely has an intimidating effect on the rest of the organizations, but also on the victims, on the priests and religious communities who are the ones who accompany them in their towns, in their most remote communities from the political center of the country, to the victims in their complaints,” Murillo asserted.
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