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 144 of 190 Human Rights lawyers have also been subject of the crime of imprisonment. This is the case of Marcelo Crovato. He worked as a laywer with the Venezuelan NGO Foro Penal until he was detained on April 22, 2014. When he arrived to a police raid at his clients’ home in Chacao, Caracas, to represent them as his attorney, the police detained him.623 The police did not have an arrest warrant against him nor caught him committing any crime, the only two legal grounds to arrest under Venezuelan law.624 The police was looking for evidence linked to the support and financing of the anti-government protests that had been taking place since the beginning of February 2014.625 The General Prosecutor’s Office has subsequently accused Marcelo Crovato of endangering safety on a public road, incitement to break the law, public intimidation and conspiracy to commit a crime.626 These offences carry sentences of at least 15 years’ imprisonment. Venezuelan NGO Provea states that the only evidence against Crovato is that he legally assisted as a lawyer people whose house was object of a police raid.627 Amnesty International analysed the indictment issued by the General Prosecutor’s Office and stated that “[t]he main basis for the charges is the testimony of an unidentified police officer who has accused Marcelo Crovato of taking part in a meeting on 10 April 2014 at which people allegedly responsible for organizing and building barricades and blocking the roads in Chacao were also present.” Amnesty International concluded “the authorities have not produced any credible evidence to support the charges against him or implicating him in criminal acts”. Therefore, the international NGO publicly called on the authorities to immediately release him.628 Crovato spent over 9 months in Yare III prison on pre-trial detention. During this time, not even the preliminary hearing of the trial took place.629 Following massive claims for 623 VÁSQUEZ, E. (2014) Abogado defensor de familia investigada también quedó preso. El Universal. [Online] 27 April. Available from: http://www.eluniversal.com/caracas/140427/abogado-defensor-de- familia-investigada-tambien-quedo-preso [Accessed 26 October, 2015]; EL MUNDO. (2014) Detenido abogado del Foro Penal en Chacao. El Mundo. [Online] 22 April. Available from: http://www.elmundo.com.ve/noticias/actualidad/noticias/detenido-abogado-del-foro-penal-en- chacao.aspx [Accessed 26 October, 2015] 624 ACCION LIBERTAD. (2015) Derechos Humanos-Venezuela: Efectos de la criminalización de la protesta y la disidencia 625 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL. (2015) Venezuela: the Faces of Impunity. p.36 626 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL. (2015) Venezuela: the Faces of Impunity. p.36 627 PROVEA. (2014) Venezuela 2014: Protestas y Derechos Humanos. pp. 62-63 628 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL. (2015) Venezuela: the Faces of Impunity. p.36 629 ACCION LIBERTAD. (2015) Derechos Humanos-Venezuela: Efectos de la criminalización de la protesta y la disidencia; GLOBOVISION. (2015) Diferida audiencia del abogado Marcelo Crovato. Globovision. [Online] 9 April. Available from: http://globovision.com/diferida-audiencia-del-abogado- marcelo-crovato/ [Accessed 26 October, 2015]