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ePaper created 2015-11-10, 17:27:36 | version 1.33.00
REDACTED Page 160 of 190 the bars inside their respective cells due to the lack of response of the judiciary to the opinion of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which urged the government to free them immediately. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Méndez, has stated that: “[…] considering the severe mental damage or the suffering that isolation may cause, this practice is comparable to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments, if used as punishment during the preventive detention or indefinitely.”701 As a result of the protests of Leopoldo López, Daniel Ceballos and other political prisoners in the military prison of Ramo Verde, on the 24 October 2014, the Director of the prison, Colonel Homero Miranda ordered the detainees to do their physiological needs in plastic bags. The bags full of excrements were then tied with ropes to the ceiling and let off on Leopoldo López and Daniel Ceballos. They immediately interrupted the light and water services for twelve hours so they could not clean themselves. Lilian Tintori and Patricia Ceballos, wives of Leopoldo López and Daniel Ceballos, respectively declared at a news conference: “(…) that the guardians threw human faeces to López and Ceballos in their cells, after they announced that they would do a night protest hitting the bars.”702 This practice clearly violates the international obligations of the GoV against torture. Further, should the OTP conclude that the crimes above do not meet the required threshold for constituting the crime against humanity of torture it is alleged in the alternative that that the crimes presented above amount to the crime against humanity of persecution and/or other inhumane acts. xv) Marco Aurelio Coello 18-year-old Marco Aurelio Coello, who was arrested on 12 February 2014 reported being hit with blunt objects during his detention and being given electric shocks, after which he was detained for more than five months. According to his mother, Marco was in a bathroom and handcuffed when a CICPC (Scientific Police) officer put a gun on his head and said: “We are going to kill you. We 701 UN. (2011) Special Rapporteur on Torture of the UN Call to prohibit the Solitary Confinement. United Nations. [Online] 18 October. Available from: http://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=11506& [Accessed 26 October, 2015] 702 EL COMERCIAL. (2014) Custodian threw faeces to Leopoldo López. El Comercio. [Online] 30 October. Available from: http://elcomercio.pe/mundo/latinoamerica/venezuela-policia-le-lanzo- excrementos-leopoldo-Lopez-noticia-1767909 [Accessed 26 October, 2015]