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ePaper created 2015-11-10, 17:27:36 | version 1.33.00
REDACTED Page 142 of 190 Gladys Gutiérrez herself read the sentence on a press conference.610 Furthermore, Ceballos is currently on trial charged with civil rebellion and conspiracy to commit a crime. The charges relate to his alleged involvement in the anti- government protests that shook the country between February and July 2014. If convicted, he could face at least eight more years in prison.611 On 28 August 2014, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stated that it considered Daniel Ceballos to have been arbitrarily detained and called on the government to release him immediately. The UN Working Group argued that Ceballos’ right to a due process had been violated in all of these proceedings and stated that: “Mr Ceballos was arbitrarily detained because the Venezuelan Bolivarian Republic had failed to abide by international standards of judicial impartiality.”. It concluded that: “the detention of Mayor Daniel Omar Ceballos was arbitrary and motivated by a desire to prevent him exercising his right to freedom of opinion and expression and his right to political participation in his capacity as an opposition Mayor”.612 As previously mentioned, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, has called for the immediately release of Daniel Ceballos, quoting the decision of the UN Working Group.613 The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has also called for his liberation.614 vi) Enzo Scarano The Mayor of San Diego Enzo Scarano was sentenced to 10 months and 15 days of prison on 19 March 2014, for allegedly failing to abide the order to impede barricades in his jurisdiction. However, as with Mayor Ceballos, he was sentenced by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, which, as previously mentioned, does not have criminal competences. The attack against opposition mayors by the GoV eventually turned into a pattern. 610 NOTICIAS VENEZUELA. (2014) Presidenta del TSJ lee sentencia sobre Ceballos. Youtube. [Online] 25 March. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCoq2sQhASY [Accessed 25 October, 2015] 611 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL. (2015) Venezuela: the Faces of Impunity. p.40; SCHARFENBERG, E. (2014) La designación de magistrados adapta la Justicia a la medida del chavismo; NOTICIAS VENEZUELA. (2014) Presidenta del TSJ lee sentencia sobre Ceballos 612 Opinion adopted by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in its seventieth session, Opinion No. 26/2014 (A/HRC/WGAD/2014/26), paras. 51-59 613 UN. (2014) UN Human Rights Chief urges Venezuela to release arbitrarily detained protestors and politicians. United Nations. [Online] 20 October. Available from: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15187&LangID=E#sthas h.bYrhiLd [Accessed 25 October, 2015] 614 http://www.oas.org/es/cidh/prensa/comunicados/2015/015