|
[MIM advises comrades going to this demonstration not to give out any persynal information.
The enemy goes to elaborate lengths to divert and attack us.]
PLEASE JOIN A PROTEST DEMONSTRATION ON
WEDNESDAY 3rd SEPT- FROM 4 - 6 P.M. OUTSIDE THE PERUVIAN EMBASSY IN SUPPORT OF
ADOLFO OLAECHEA. A PETITION WILL BE HANDED IN DENOUNCING HIS ILLEGAL DETAINMENT
IN PRISON AND DEMANDING HIS RELEASE.
Adolfo Olaechea is a Peruvian national who has been a permanent resident in London for the past 20 years. As a Maoist intellectual, he was an outspoken critic of the Peruvian Government lead by Alberto Fujimori during the civil war in the nineties. More recently, he has been active as the Secretary General of Justice International, an organisation that advocates and has been campaigning for governments to adopt and put into practice the principles of peace, democracy and legality, not just in Peru but also in the context of the wars in Yugoslavia and Iraq. His political activities have always been legal and respectful of the laws in the UK. Whilst on a business trip to Spain in July this year, Adolfo Olaechea was arrested by the Spanish police acting on an Interpol warrant for his capture. The warrant states that Adolfo carried out a series of acts of terrorism within the territory of Peru - a charge that is both false and malicious. He was extradited to Peru on August 7th after the Spanish judiciary refused to comply with a rule 39 indication by the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg against his extradition. He is currently being held in a maximum security prison in Lima accused of being a member of the ruling council of Sendero Luminoso despite the fact that there is not one piece of evidence to support this allegation. The truth is that Adolfo Olaechea is not and never has been a member of the Communist Party of Peru, known as 'Sendero Luminoso'. He has not participated in any form in political or armed actions that have taken place in Peru since 1980. His only visit to Peru in the last 20 years was in 1990 when he spent 2 weeks there in order to get married. This extradition is only the latest episode in a campaign on the part of the Peruvian authorities to silence and intimidate Adolfo for his political beliefs. The Peruvian Government withdrew his passport in 1993 after a similar attempt to get him extradited from Britain was rejected by the British Government. The Interpol warrant on which the Spanish police arrested him in July was a renewal of a warrant issued back in 1992, stating exactly the same charge. The warrant was instigated by Montesinos, the notorious head of intelligence and security under the Fujimori Government who is currently on trial in Lima. He stands accused of overseeing a mafia that permeated the entire power structure - media, business, political parties and the government. Fujimori himself is hiding in Japan, awaiting the outcome of extradition proceedings against him. In September 1993 Adolfo Olaechea was tried in absentia by a military tribunal with hooded judges for 'apology of terrorism' and convicted to life imprisonment. After Fujimori left the country, the trial was declared illegal and the sentence was dissolved. It seems ironic that the Toledo Government with its electoral promises of returning Peru to a full democracy with an independent judiciary system decided to order the renewal of a warrant originally issued by the discredited Fujimori regime. The explanation lies in the rising discontent with the current regime in Peru, the abysmal poll ratings of its leader Toledo and the recent recurrence of incursions by Sendero Luminoso. The government of Toledo very much needs a political victory, and Adolfo Olaechea is the sacrificial lamb. Isabel Cheng, Olaechea's lawyer correctly pointed out in a recent radio interview that "according to national legislation, in order to open judicial proceedings against any person there needs to be at least circumstantial evidence to support the charge of a criminal act". In the case of Olaechea, this evidence does not exist. Therefore Ms. Cheng considers Olaechea to have been "kidnapped by the Peruvian judiciary and the judicial proceedings opened against him to be illegal". Sadly, in Peru political interest takes precedence over legality. Under extradition law, a person can only be tried for the crime on which the extradition was authorised. The Peruvian authorities, frustrated by their inability to come up with any evidence to support the false charge that Olaechea belonged to the leadership of Sendero Luminoso, are now seeking authorisation from Spain to expand the charges to include 'apology of terrorism'. This conveniently would permit them to try Olaechea for his ideas and opinions - statements and opinions that were voiced and written while residing in the UK where the basic human right of freedom of speech and expression is recognised and respected. LOCATION: PERUVIAN EMBASSY, 52 SLOANE STREET LONDON SW1 FOR FURTHER DETAILS PLEASE CONTACT: WILLIAM SPRING ON 0208 376 1454 OR HARIETTE SPIERINGS ON 0208 672 6708
|