The lawyer Tamara Sujú, a human rights defender, warned this Friday that transferring the American John Matthew Heath, a political prisoner of the government of Nicolás Maduro since 2020, to the Dgcim again, would be a serious mistake that would even endanger his life.
The United States Navy veteran continues with the same physical, psychological and psychiatric condition after he tried to commit suicide in recent days.
According to Sujú, the medical personnel of the Military Hospital have discharged him and will take him as soon as possible to the Dgcim, the same place where he was tortured and where he tried to take his own life.
“Take John Matthew Heath to the place where he was tortured and where he has identified the officials who tortured him and who also live with him, with this clinical picture is cruel. It is to think that they want Matthew to be able to make an attempt on his life again because precisely being there in that place and the mistreatment he received is what led him to do that », alerted the human rights defender.
#Venezuela. Attention:
Medical personnel from the Military Hospital send me the information that the American #MatthewHeath He was discharged and will be taken to #DGCIM again. Matthew continues with the same clinical picture @POTUS @stateSPEHA @usembassyve @UN_rights pic.twitter.com/hEOi1mpVWO— Tamara Suju (@TAMARA_SUJU) July 1, 2022
Matthew Heath in the “Box of Dolls”
just suju Thursday offered details about the case of the American who has been a victim of physical and psychological torture in the Dgcim. In fact, the lawyer pointed out that the man has received “threats of rape.”
He also told what he described as one of the cruelest forms of torture due to “the effects left by ‘The Box of Dolls'” and where Matthew Heath has been at least once.
It is a kind of duct measuring 60 x 60 x 2.75 high, where the victim cannot move, hardly bend over or sit down. The place also has no ventilation or light, and the political prisoners do not receive water or food, the lawyer explained.
While the American, a political prisoner in Venezuela since September 2020, was held at the Military Hospital in Caracas, he was visited by the special presidential envoy for Hostage Affairs, Roger Carstens, and according to Suju, Heath told Carstens “about his detention, judicial process and current situation”.
After his arrest, the United States Navy veteran was prosecuted for terrorism by the Venezuelan justice system. He was accused of planning attacks on oil and electrical installations.
Heath, 40, thinks he was detained and tortured solely because of his US nationality. For the US State Department, the citizen is unjustly detained.
