[Pnews] Colombian Simón Trinidad - Popular justice for a guerilla

Prisoner News ppnews at freedomarchives.org
Fri Apr 28 10:19:52 EDT 2017


http://theprisma.co.uk/2017/04/24/popular-justice-for-a-guerilla/


  Popular justice for a guerilla

April 24, 2017
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/The Colombian Simón Trinidad has spent thirteen years in the toughest 
prison in the US. An International Opinion Tribunal will be held in 
Colombia in May to reconsider his case, and deliver a verdict which will 
be both independent and in line with public opinion. /

Those who have succeeded in entering the prison in Florence, Colorado, 
can confirm the reputation it has had since it was built in 1994. Known 
as /The Alcatraz of the Rockies/, it is by a long way the most 
impenetrable prison in the whole US.

It is built entirely of concrete, even including the beds, and the 490 
prisoners held inside receive their food through a grill. The 7.5 square 
metre cells are where the they spend 23 hours of each day in complete 
confinement. These are the most dangerous 
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/9195490/Abu-Hamza-extradition-inside-ADX-Florence-the-Alcatraz-of-the-Rockies.html> 
convicts, according to the authorities, who only have 1 hr a day to 
exercise inside cages.

Among all its blocks, block H is the most strict. It is just here that 
Simón Trinidad is held, together with the bomber of the Twin Towers, and 
the Oklahoma and Boston Marathon bombers. If his sentence is not changed 
the Colombian will not see the light of day until 2056.

But who is Juvenal Ricardo Ovidio Palmera? Known as Simón Trinidad, and 
an economist by profession, he is one of thousands of Colombians who 
took up arms to confront the violence that the state was using against 
its social and political opponents.

His life changed on 2nd January 2004, the day this member of the FARC-EP 
was captured in Quito, Ecuador. The operation, organized by the CIA, 
ended with his extradition to the US – approved by the then president of 
Colombia, Alvaro Uribe – on charges of terrorism, kidnapping and drug 
trafficking.

Unable to extradite him for political reasons, he was charged with 
holding hostage three US mercenaries in the forest, for which he was 
sentenced to 60 years in prison.

*The International Opinion Tribunal*

This situation has led a number of personalities and comrades of the 
struggle to organise the Simón Trinidad International Opinion Tribunal 
(IOT), a call that has been extended to lawyers, intellectuals, 
academics, social leaders, churches and the general public.

This tribunal is an instrument of justice, in which members of all these 
groups can express their opinions and demonstrate openly and freely 
about the case, in an exercise of popular democracy.

Its aim is to produce a statement of popular justice, which allows 
consideration of the legal structures in states that violate 
internationally recognized principles and rights, among them the right 
to be judged by the legal system of a person’s own country and not by 
that of another country.

An ITO must organise an objective and impartial collection of evidence 
and witness statements, sufficient to permit a democratic process of 
justice, and also set up a jury composed of suitably qualified people, 
free of any personal motives which could affect their verdict.

The final goal is that the people should be the guarantors of a fair and 
democratic trial of Simón Trinidad, who, since he is unable to appear in 
person will have to choose someone to represent him.

At the Tribunal, which will be held in the Faculty of Law of the 
Colombian National University, people appearing, among others, will be 
the Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, the defence lawyers 
Mark Burton (USA), Ramiro Orjuela (Colombia), and other human rights 
defence lawyers. During the session, which begins at 8.00 with the 
swearing-in of the Tribunal, the charges will be read out, evidence and 
witness statements will be presented, as well as the opinions of the 
different sides. Following this, the jury will hold their deliberations 
at 6 pm., and deliver their verdict an hour later. More information: 
Uldarico Florez Peña, email: uldaricoflores at yahoo.com.co

*(Translated by Graham Douglas)*

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