The legal team for Venezuelan political prisoner Eligio Cedeno has announced
a new international front in its defense campaign, including the hiring
Canadian attorney Robert R. Amsterdam of
Amsterdam & Peroff, as part of an effort to raise awareness of
Venezuela's collapsing legal system and the egregious disregard for Mr.
Cedeno's constitutional rights.
During a press conference held in Caracas on Wednesday, Amsterdam cited
a long list of severe procedural violations by Venezuelan prosecutors in
the Cedeno case, including the illegal suspension of the trial on the
eve of a verdict, once it became clear that the state had failed to
prove their case. In the process, Mr. Cedeno has been incarcerated for
almost two years without a conviction, in clear violation of his
constitutional rights. Now, prosecutors have asked for more time to hold
him in pre-trial detention while they consider their options.
"Anyone who looks objectively at these facts can see that Eligio
Cedeno violated no laws, but is the target of an arbitrary campaign
of persecution," said Amsterdam. "When the state ignores the law in
order to keep innocent people incarcerated, the conclusion must be
that
Venezuela is holding political prisoners. It is time for the
international community to send a clear message to the government of
Venezuela: the law is not a weapon to silence dissent, it is a
mechanism to protect the sovereign rights of the people."
Before his arrest on Feb. 8, 2007, Cedeno was one of Venezuela's
most successful financial executives and President of the
Bolivar-Banpro Financial Group. In the course of directing
various philanthropic projects, he developed relationships with
members of the political opposition, which his lawyers maintain
is part of the state's motivation for denying him due process
and a fair trial while holding him in prolonged pre-trial
detention.
The Attorney General's office accuses Mr. Cedeno 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. Cedeno 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.
Robert R. Amsterdam has been added to the defense
team because of his experience with human rights
abuses and business disputes in trans-national
courts - including matters involving
Russia, which suffers from similar trends in
authoritarian politics and the weakening rule of
law.
"After two years of fighting for the
constitutional right to a fair trial, it has
become clear that this is no longer just a case
about Mr. Cedeno, but rather a trial of
Venezuela's legal system itself," said Emilio
Berrizbeitia, an attorney on the Cedeno defense
team. "Even though Mr. Cedeno was not allowed to
introduce evidence that clearly demonstrated his
innocence, the prosecutors could not prove that
he violated any law. There is simply no
conceivable legal reason why Mr. Cedeno should
remain incarcerated a day longer."