VenEconomia, published in the Latin American Herald Tribune, really nails down the important aspects of the Eligio Cedeño release, and subsequent persecution of the judge who executed the order.
Another incident that will go down in history is the decision taken this Thursday by the Caracas judge, María Lourdes Afiuni, to permit the banker and political prisoner Eligio Cedeño to be released while his case is being heard and issuing an order forbidding him to leave the country and to report to the authorities every 15 days, as established in the Criminal Procedures Code.
Cedeño is one of the more than a hundred cases of political persecution under the Hugo Chávez regime. He was accused in February 2007 of allegedly making improper use of $27 million (obtained at the preferential rate) in the "Microstar Case."
Eligio Cedeño has been held at the headquarters of the DISIP (state political police) for two years awaiting trial, in flagrant violation of the Criminal Procedures Code.
This is not the first time that a court has ordered that Cedeño be released until tried and sentenced. The first time, it was the Appeals Court that ordered his release, but the order was annulled by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice. And now, Judge Afiuni, in a brave gesture of independence, neutrality, and justice, took the decision to restore Cedeño's right to stand trial a free man.
What apparently led the judge to take this decision was the failure of the public prosecutors in charge of the case to turn up at the two preliminary hearings set to review the decision to keep Cedeño in prison for the duration of his trial, the first on December 8 and the second this Thursday, December 10, despite the fact that their offices are practically next door to the court.
Unfortunately, her independent decision and her compliance with the law have cost the judge her freedom. Today she is being held at the headquarters of the DISIP accused of violating Article 87 of the Criminal Procedures Code, which forbids judges to main direct or indirect contact with any of the parties without the presence of all of them. The thesis being put forward by the authorities is that the judge is presumably involved in irregularities that allowed Eligio Cedeño to escape.
What is clear from these three complex decisions is the importance of the separation of the branches of government if people are to live in a country where justice and the rule of law prevail.
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