On 18 February, in the court of Santa Cruz del Quiche, opened the trial against Antonio Rutilio Matías López, former agent of the National Civil Police (PNC) who is charged with aggravated rape and abuse of power against Juana Méndez Rodríguez, a Quiché woman. ACOGUATE has been accompanying the case since April 2007 when the Institute for Comparative Studies in Criminal Sciences in Guatemala (ICCPG), Juana Mendez counsel requested internacionalpor accompanying threats had received for his participation in the case.
Facts
The January 17, 2005 Dona Juana was moved to Nebaj, department of Quiché, due to appear before a court to make his first statement to a judge after having spent more than a month detention in Chimaltenango, Chimaltenango Department, charged with complicity for failing to report a poppy planting was near his home - a charge that was later dismissed. According to the account of facts read in court by opening the trial, the night of 17 and morning of January 18, Doña Juana was repeatedly sexually assaulted by two police drunk. At the hearing on March 5, Doña Juana, told how, that night, police officers groped, raped and then forced to walk naked through the station in front of other detainees before ordering to be bathed in front of them to try to eliminate evidence of what happened. As reported, after the fact Juana and she wept in the room where she had been raped wondering if "it was possible they did so with all the prisoners." Doña Juana denounced these events the next day when she was taken to court for his Nebaj statement.
Threats against ICCPG and international involvement
More than three years after Joanna reported the incident, the case has finally arrived in front of a court following a process that "has been hindered by continuous threats against witnesses, victims and civil society organizations that support" (Prensa Libre , May 15, 2007). The prosecutor in the case, ICCPG has been the target of most of these threats. In fact, in early 2007, members of ICCPG suffered several incidents of intimidation of high intensity - searches, surveillance, monitoring, kidnapping, shooting in front of the office, death threats - and, therefore, requested international accompaniment ACOGUATE in April 2007.
According to interviews to the media mentioned above, the attacks are interpreted as a "explicit warnings not to pursue the case ... (and for this reason) requested support from the then director of the PNC, Julio Hernandez, as they can be sure that the threats and attacks from serving officers. "
According to the Observatory of Human Rights in Guatemala "threats may be related to the work they ICCPG members ... in research, documentation and reporting of rape, torture and extrajudicial killing within the criminal justice system in Guatemala. Currently, the complainant is ICCPG adhesive in several legal cases involving officers of the PNC and / or public officials responsible for a series of human rights violations ranging from illegal detention, torture and even extrajudicial executions of stigmatized persons, person in custody and probably actions against some human rights defenders. "(http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article4281).
sexual violence by state agents
The day before the start of the trial, members of various groups of women came to Santa Cruz del Quiche in solidarity with Mrs. Mendez - all those who have been involved in the case know as "Dona Juana." On the morning of February 18, hundreds of women marched through the village streets carrying placards which read messages could be demanding that justice be done in the case and referred also to the fact that violence sex is a known fact for many women. "Doña Juana, the truth is I really read them over and another: When a rape, rape them all." According to the ICCPG, sexual violence against women by the guard is common in police stations and prisons.
Indeed, a study carried out by the ICCPG in 2005 revealed that up to 75% of women in detention detention are victims of abuse and sexual violence at the hands of government agents. Although 43% of these women reported the crime to a judge, only one case has reached the Public Prosecutor. Juana's case is the first sexual abuse case that points to a PNC and it gets to be heard by a criminal court. Therefore, several women's groups say it is important that a transparent and fair trial in this case to try to break the impunity with which these crimes are committed and for other women dared to report similar incidents. This case broke a barrier of impunity in May 2006 when Matthias and the second officer charged in the case, Nery Osberto Aldana Rodríguez (who is still at large) were dismissed by the Disciplinary Tribunal of the PNC who were declared responsible for torture. It was the first ruling issued by this court for the crime of rape and the first time it recognized sexual violence as torture.
The trial's first hearing in the case - Feb. 18 - was focused mostly in the medical experts. Through the interrogation conducted by the Technical Consultant ICCPG, Dr. Jorge de la Peña Martinez, it was established that the doctor who examined Juana day after the rape - Dr. Isaiah Johnson, then director of the regional hospital of Nebaj - unaware of the protocol in evaluations of victims of rape and, moreover, that before examining Doña Juana, had never performed a gynecological exam. He himself acknowledged that he had made "many mistakes" in his report - in which he concluded that it had found conclusive evidence of rape.
Former police officer accused Rutilio Antonio Matías López, who had refused to declare the start of the trial at the end said after the testimony of Doña Juana in the March 5 hearing. He said that was not in the sub-station Nebaj the night of 17 to 18 January 2005 because he had left without permission to take your toddler to the hospital. However, at the first hearing on 18 February 2008, a former agent of the National Civil Police (PNC) and co-worker of the defendant, had testified against Matias, claiming not only that the latter was present night of the rape and was under the influence of alcohol, but you saw was above the victim, abused. This former PNC official testified in the case despite having been the victim of many threats and intimidation by their involvement in the case - had Nebaj to flee and is still under cautionary measures the public prosecutor.
The case is still in process - the conclusions will be given in April. Remains to be seen if the wish will be fulfilled by Joanna: "I want justice, I do not want any woman to happen again what happened to me, why is not fair."
...... ............................... Writer
ACOGUATE
References:
Institute for Comparative Studies in Criminal Sciences in Guatemala - ICCPG - Figures of impunity of police crime against women. Guatemala, 2005. Http://www.amnesty.org.ru/library/Index/ESLAMR340142007?open&of=ESL-GTM
http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article4281
http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2007/mayo/15/170850.html
http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2006/junio/18/144527.html
http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2007/julio/17/177237.html
http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2008/febrero/14/220163.html
http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/hoy/220997.html
http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2008/febrero/19/220579.html
http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2008/febrero/28/222898.html
http://www.lahora.com.gt/notas.php?key=26225&fch=2008-02-18
http://www.cerigua.org/portal/Article13199.html
http://www.cerigua.org/portal/Article13240.html
http://elperiodico.com.gt/es/20080303/pais/49561/
