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RED VZLA Urgent Request to the OTP-3

REDACTED Page 162 of 190 individual circumstances; the suffering must be the result of an act or omission of the accused or his subordinate and when the offence was committed, the accused or his subordinate must have been motivated by the intent to inflict serious bodily or mental harm upon the victim.”710 The ICTR also recognised that a third party witnessing crimes committed against others particularly if those others are family or friends could suffer mental harm.711 It has been reported that the repression of the protests has resulted in around at least 878 injured civilians since February 2014712 of which at least 138 were wounded by gunshot, 330 by pellets, 72 people by being beaten up, 34 people were injured by blunt objects and the remaining 280 wounded suffered injuries of various kinds.713 The analysis of different stages of protests’ repression by the GoV demonstrates that the security and armed forces, as well as the pro-government armed paramilitary forces under control of the GoV, have constantly attacked and injured peaceful and unarmed civilians including by way of live ammunition fired at demonstrators and homes in residential areas.714 Amnesty International had access to statements from victims, eyewitnesses and journalists reporting on the protests, as well as medical personnel who treated the injured and photographic, video evidence and analysis of riot equipment and non- regulation equipment used and concluded that law enforcement officials used excessive force on many occasions against protesters, passers-by and residents in areas where protests took place between February and July 2014.715 Similarly, the Committee against Torture expressed concern about the unlawful use of firearms and riot equipment against protesters in residential areas during the 2014 protests.716 The next paragraphs will present a few examples of the wide variety of inhumane acts that took place which may not constitute specific acts provided in the RS but are of a 710 ICC. Prosecutor v Kordic and Cerkez. Judgment Appeals Chamber. 17 December, 2004. para. 117 711 ICC. Prosecutor v Fofana and Kondewa. Trial Judgment. 2 August, 2007. para. 153 712 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL. (2015) Venezuela: the Faces of Impunity. p.7 713 PROVEA. (2014) Venezuela 2014: Protestas y Derechos Humanos 714 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL. (2015) Venezuela: the Faces of Impunity. p.19 715 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL. (2015) Venezuela: the Faces of Impunity. p.7 716 COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE. (2014). Observaciones finales sobre los informes periódicos tercero y cuarto combinados de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela ( CAT/C/VEN/CO/3- 4). United Nations. [Online] 12 December. Available from: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CAT/C/VEN/ CO/3- 4&Lang=sp [Accessed 26 October, 2015] para. 12

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