Eligio Cedeño has now spent more than two years in prison without a conviction, in violation of local and international law, defense lawyers say
CARACAS, March 3, 2009 - In a human rights case that has received increasing international attention and condemnation, defense lawyers for Eligio Cedeño have accused the Venezuelan government of violating the law by keeping the defendant imprisoned beyond the established two-year limit on preventative detention, abandoning any plausible pretext of due process or fair treatment.
"We are witnessing an indefensible and egregious violation of Cedeño's rights by the authorities," said Robert Amsterdam, one of the international defense lawyers on the case. "The law is unambiguous with regard to imprisonment without conviction, and the state's refusal to comply with the law reveals two facts: that the prosecutors haven't been able to prove an innocent man guilty, and that Eligio Cedeño is now considered a political prisoner, given this exceptional treatment."
Cedeño has not been convicted of any crime, but is being held in pre-trial incarceration ("preventive detention") on the supposed grounds that he is a flight risk, notwithstanding the fact that he voluntarily turned himself into the authorities. On February 9, 2009, Cedeño completed the two-year maximum allowed for pre-trial detention, yet he has not been released. Article 244 of the Venezuela Code of Criminal Procedure expressly limits pre-trial incarceration to a term of two years: "In no event shall any [measure of personal deprivation of freedom] exceed the minimum sentence for each crime, or exceed a term of two years."
Before his arrest, Cedeno was one of Venezuela's most successful financial executives and President of the Bolivar-Banpro Financial Group. The Attorney General's office accuses Mr. Cedeño of violating Venezuela's strict foreign exchange controls when the bank where he worked, Banco Canarias, processed a fraudulent currency exchange application by a bank customer claiming to be purchasing computers from abroad, which in fact never arrived in Venezuela. Venezuela's currency exchange commission (CADIVI) is the sole entity that is legally responsible and equipped to verify the truthfulness of the currency exchange applications, and CADIVI approved the transactions in question. The responsibility of Banco Canarias was limited to verifying that the applications had been completed correctly and were accompanied by the required documentation, which the bank duly performed.
Mr. Cedeño is also accused of misappropriating Venezuelan currency of Banco Canarias to fund the fraudulent exchange transaction, and of attempting to smuggle the fictitious computers. At trial, Mr. Cedeno sought to introduce documents and testimony that would exonerate him of all charges, but he was denied the right to introduce any of that evidence. His trial was controversially suspended by the authorities on the eve of the verdict, when it was apparent that prosecutors had failed to prove their case.
Defense lawyers maintain that there are several overlapping motivations behind the persecution of Cedeño, one of them being political. In a major investigative article recently published in the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, lawyers are quoted discussing the defendant's relationships with leaders of the opposition as a source of ire for the government. "The government has broken the law to keep Cedeño imprisoned because they believe he assisted the departure from the country of opposition figures," said Amsterdam, adding that his client firmly denies the allegations. "With this government, the truth is apparently irrelevant; only their accusations are taken seriously."
Leave a comment