July-December 2010 caselist - PEN International

she wrote a popular regular column, after she questioned the newspaper’simpartiality; its owners are linked to President Juan Manuel Santos, thena presidential candidate.dinson LUCIO TORRES: internet journalist (author of the blog“Lucio y sus notas”) based in Cartagena, Bolivar, is on trial for allegedlydefaming a senator. The senator sued Lucio Torres for criminal defamationin October 2006 after the journalist reported on his blog and radioprogramme that the congressman was one of eight people shown to havelinks with paramilitary groups. Lucio Torres, who is also the Bolívar headof the opposition Polo Democrático political party, reportedly based hiscomments on reports from national newspaper El Tiempo, the regionalOmbudsman’s Office and a non governmental organisation. The chargesagainst him were admitted on 14 February 2008 and the Prosecutor’sOffice subsequently ruled that Lucio Torres did not have sufficient prooffor his allegations and had slandered the plaintiff. The initial hearing wasdue to commence on 19 February 2010, having reportedly been postponedsix times. No further information as of 31 December 2010; PEN isseeking an update.Death threat*Claudia AYOLA ESCALÓN (f): columnist for the daily El Universalin Cartagena and for the national magazine Semana, reportedly receivedan email death threat on 15 October 2010. The message stated that “thetime has come for you to pay for your writings” and also extended to thejournalist’s daughter. The origin of the threat is unknown. Ayola notedthat in the previous weeks she had received several strange phone callsand at one point a man approached her on the street, asked her name andthen ran away. The local police were investigating the threats.*Ramón SANDOVAL RODRIGUEZ: editor of the newspaper ElSabanero in Sabana de Torres, Santander department, reportedly receivedseveral threatening phone calls on 2 December 2010 in which an unidentifiedcaller threatened him with death. The caller told him to “keep quietand get out of Sabana de Torres” or he would be killed. Sandoval believesthe threats are related to a series of articles on corruption in the municipalgovernment. The police reportedly said that they were not aware of thethreat but said that they were willing to provide Sandoval with protection.*Carol Viviana USQUIANO (f) and Daniel RESTREPO: journalists,respectively for the daily newspapers Q’ Hubo and La Tarde, werereportedly threatened with death in Pereira, Risaralda department, on 13December 2010. The incident took place in the city’s Justice Departmentheadquarters after the journalists attended a hearing in the case of analleged criminal who is being investigated for homicide, theft and illegalpossession of weapons. While the journalists were coving the hearingand taking photographs Gómez’s relatives began harassing them. Oneof the detainee’s relatives told the journalists they did not want them topublish anything about the case. Usquiano told him that the hearing wasa public event and they had a right to attend it, to which the man reportedlyreplied: “We can easily have your brains blown out.”Attacked*Jose Rosario Olan HERNANDEZ: editor of the Cardenas-based politicalmagazine Veredicto popular. Hernández’ car and house were shot aton 18 December 2010. Although nobody was hurt, both the house andthe car were damaged: the house was hit at least fifteen times while thecar was hit eight times. Hernández said he had recently criticized severalof the town’s civil servants and elected officials in his column. He filed acomplaint at the local police station.*Norbey QUEVEDO: investigations editor for the newspaper ElEspectador, was abducted at gunpoint after leaving the newspaperpremises in the capital Bogotá in the early hours of 13 November 2010and was subsequently robbed. Quevedo’s car was intercepted by twoarmed men who made him get into their car and held him at gunpoint fortwo hours, questioning him about some money they thought he had takenout of the newspaper building. Quevedo denied having any money andwas eventually abandoned in the industrial zone of Bogotá. He was notinjured but his car, mobile phone, laptop computer, debit card and a briefcasecontaining documents relating to his current investigations had beenstolen and money was later withdrawn from his account using his card.El Espectador reportedly believed that the thieves’ mention of the newspapermeant that a link to Quevedo’s journalistic work could not be ruledout. At the time the journalist was carrying out a sensitive investigationinto a national scandal around irregularities in the contracting of publicworks by the Bogotá Mayor’s office. Quevedo is a well known investigativejournalist whose work has meant that he has frequently come underpressure by different groups in the past. The abduction and robbery werereported to the authorities and the police was said to be investigating.*Marco Tulio VALENCIA: journalist and editor of El Notre newspaperin Mariquita, was the target of an assassination attempt when an unidentifiedindividual shot at him five times on 30 August 2010. Valenciamanaged to escape unharmed. The incident took place as the journalistwas returning home at night. His assailant approached on a motorcycleand fired two shots from a distance. The motorbike then stalled, allowingValencia to open his front door as the assailant tried to restart the vehicle.The attacker then started shooting again at Valencia, who managed toenter his home. The assailant fled before the police had arrived. Valenciahad received threats prior to the attack. On 22 June he received severalthreatening calls and messages and in the first week of August he wasapproached in the street by two individuals who fired several shots intothe air in an attempt to intimidate him. Valencia believed the assassinationattempt and threats could be linked to reports in El Notre on smallscaledrug trafficking networks in Mariquita.CUBAImprisoned - main casesMarch 2003 Crackdown Trials: The following four writers, journalistsand librarians were among 35 sentenced during one-day trials held on3/4 April 2003 under laws governing the protection of the Cuban state.They were arrested as part of a crackdown on alleged dissidents thatbegan on 18 March 2003 and in which 75 people in total were detainedand tried. The one-day court hearings were held behind closed doorsand there was insufficient time for the accused to put together a cogentdefence. The accusations focused on the alleged conspiratorial dealingsbetween the defendants and James Cason, the chief of the US SpecialInterests Section in Havana. Shortly before the crackdown Cason hadconsiderably stepped up his contacts with Cubans who had voiced oppositionto Fidel Castro. Charges: All of the detained were tried underArticle 91 of the Penal Code and Law 88. Article 91 deals with charges ofacting against “the independence of the territorial integrity of the state”,the maximum penalty for which is death. Law 88 is a catch-all piece oflegislation that has been used in the past as a means for sending writersand journalists to prison. It allows for prison sentences of up to 20 yearsfor those found guilty of committing “acts that, in line with imperialistinterests, are aimed at subverting the internal order of the Nation and23