Journalist Juan Pablo Suárez, who is the first person to be charged under Argentina’s new Anti-Terrorism law, gave a statement on Friday accusing the prosecution of falsifying the evidence against him.
Suárez, who runs the site Ultima Hora in the province of Santiago del Estero, was detained in December after filming the heavy-handed arrest of policeman Nelson Villagrán, who had been protesting in a Plaza Leopoldo Lugones in the provincial capital, asking for a salary increase. Two hours after Villagrán’s arrest, the offices of Ultima Hora were raided by 40 policemen, and two laptops, a desktop computer and a camera were confiscated and Suárez was arrested.
The violent arrest of Nelson Villagrán, filmed by journalist Juan Pablo Suárez
Villagrán had already been detained for a week in January 2013 after declaring that there were irregularities in police funds, before being released showing visible signs of physical abuse during his detention.
Suárez was released after being held for ten days in solitary confinement, charged with sedition and incitement of violence. At the time, his lawyer, Víctor Daniel Nazar, responded to the charges saying: “It is an extremely grave accusation when all my client did was write a newspaper article” about a brutal police attack on a man who was protesting peacefully.
Earlier this month, the prosecutor in the case, Pedro Simón, said that Suárez was not being charged for the publication of the video, but for “spreading false information” regarding looting. Simón then referred the case to federal court judge Guillermo Molinari after adding the charge of “terrorising the population” to the initial charge of “incitement to collective violence”.
This change in the charges means that Suárez will be the first person to face charges under Argentina’s 2011 Anti-Terrorism law, which doubles the possible sentence the journalist faces to 6-12 years.
On Friday, Suárez appeared in court to testify to Judge Molinari and Simón, and hear the evidence against him. The evidence included transcriptions of Facebook and Whats App messages between Villagrán and Suárez, showing alleged contact between them after Suárez’s arrest. Suárez denies that he sent the messages, and his lawyer argued that his telephone had been confiscated upon his arrest and he did not have access to it whilst he was imprisoned. Suárez went on to argue that upon his release he had reported that his Whats App had shown activity during six days whilst he was in jail, when the telephone was in the power of Judge Rosa Falco.
At the end of the hearing, Molinari gave Suárez and his lawyers time to challenge the charges, which for now remain the same. The journalist has received support from various freedom of press organisations, and last Tuesday appeared in front of the Senate, where he was given the backing of various opposition leaders, deputies, and senators who are working to fight the Anti-Terrorism law.
The post Facing Anti-Terrorism Charges, Journalist Accuses Prosecution of Falsifying Evidence appeared first on The Argentina Independent.