Please activate JavaScript!
Please install Adobe Flash Player, click here for download
ePaper created 2015-11-10, 17:27:36 | version 1.33.00
REDACTED Page 136 of 190 writing to Mata, “My friend, I had to choose between keeping my job or waking up fired”.576 Being a temporary appointee, Tovar could easily be dismissed by the Superior Tribunal of Justice, presided by Gladys Gutiérrez, and, ultimately, by President Maduro. In May 2014, Judge Tovar was replaced.577 Four months later, on 4 July 2014, judge Adriana López Orellana found the results of the investigation by the General Prosecutor’s Office admissible and determined that there was sufficient evidence to bring Leopoldo López to trial. In addition, he refused to grant bail pending trial. 578 López has now spent more than one year in Ramo Verde, a military prison near Caracas. The trial of Leopoldo López opened on 23 July 2014, with Judge Susana Barreiros of the Trial 28 Court of the Metropolitan Area of Caracas. Judge Barreiros, like Judge López during the intermediate phase of the criminal proceedings, denied almost every single request by the defense: for example, she rejected all claims presented by defense lawyers requesting remedy for human rights abuses during López’s detention.579 Human Rights Watch reports that the judge has not allowed López’s lawyers “to present evidence on behalf of his defence”580 and that “the prosecutors have failed to present credible evidence to substantiate their accusations”.581 On 26 August 2014, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stated that the detention of Leopoldo López was arbitrary and suggested that it was politically 576 TRUJILLO, M. (2014) Amiga de jueza habla de presiones en el caso Leopoldo López. El Universal. [Online] 26 February. Available from: http://www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y- politica/140226/amiga-de-jueza-habla-de-presiones-en-el-caso-leopoldo-López [Accessed 25 October, 2015]; See also: NTN24. (2014) Ciudadana venezolana denuncia en NTN24 que jueza del caso Leopoldo López recibió presión. Youtube. [Online] 26 February. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi8LsVLW-b0# [Accessed 25 October, 2015] 577 ALONSO, J.F. (2014) Para sus abogados defensores Leopoldo López es un "preso político.” El Universal. [Online] 30 April. Available from: http://www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/protestas- en-venezuela/140430/para-sus-abogados-defensores-leopoldo-Lopez-es-un-preso-politico [Accessed 25 October, 2015] 578 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL. (2015) Venezuela: the Faces of Impunity. p39. Acción por la Libertad, Derechos Humanos-Venezuela: Efectos de la criminalización de la protesta y la disidencia (Jan. 26, 2015), at 10. Available at: ACCION LIBERTAD. (2015) Derechos Humanos-Venezuela: Efectos de la criminalización de la protesta y la disidencia. Acción Libertad. [Online] 26 January. Available from: https://accionporlalibertad.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/derechos-humanos- venezuela-efectos-de-la-criminalizacic3b3n-de-la-protesta-y-la-disidencia.pdf [Accessed 25 October, 2015] 579 ALONSO, J.F. (2015) López feels that democracy is prosecuted in his case. El Universal. [Online] 24 July. Available from: http://www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/140724/Lopez-feels-that- democracy-is-prosecuted-in-his-case [Accessed 25 October, 2015] 580 HRW. (2015) Informe Mundial 2015: Venezuela. Human Rights Watch. [Online] Available from: http://www.hrw.org/es/world-report/2015/country-chapters/132077 [Accessed 25 October, 2015] 581 HRW. (2015) UNASUR: Condemn Abuses in Venezuela. Human Rights Watch. [Online] 26 February. Available from: http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/02/26/unasur-condemn-abuses-venezuela [Accessed 25 October, 2015]