Venezuela: Free Freelance Photojournalist
Jesús Medina Arbitrarily Held in Military Prison Since August
Venezuelan authorities should immediately release Jesús Medina, who they have arbitrarily imprisoned because of his reporting for nearly nine months, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Human Rights Watch said today.
On May 23, 2019, Medina is scheduled to be taken before a judge for his preliminary hearing, which has been postponed eight times. Agents from the National Bolivarian Intelligence Agency (SEBIN) detained Medina, who worked as a photojournalist for several outlets, on August 29, 2018. He was part of a team of journalists working on an investigative project at a Caracas hospital, said the National Union of Press Workers. He is being held in the Ramo Verde military prison. (The only other journalist currently detained in Venezuela is under house arrest, according to CPJ research).
“Venezuelan authorities should immediately drop the absurd charges against Jesús Medina and stop finding pretexts to prolong his pretrial detention,” said CPJ Central and South America Coordinator Natalie Southwick. “Jailing reporters and criminalizing journalism will not put an end to the profound crisis in Venezuela, nor hide it from the world.”
On August 31, Medina was charged with crimes including inciting hate, illegal enrichment, and criminal association, said a lawyer from local human rights organization Penal Forum who is on his defense team. The lawyer said that the criminal file does not include any legal or factual analysis to substantiate the charges. Under Venezuela’s vaguely worded anti-hate law, the crime of “inciting hate” is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. The law was passed in November 2017 by the pro-Maduro Constituent Assembly, which was created to take over legislative powers from the opposition-controlled National Assembly.
Under Venezuelan law, Medina’s preliminary hearing – in which prosecutors offer justification for the formal charges – should have taken place within 45 days. It has been delayed eight times, most recently on May 2. On six occasions, the delay was because the court had not issued the order for Medina to be transferred from prison to court on time, and the hearing could not take place in his absence, said another of Medina’s lawyers from Penal Forum. In the two other instances, the court had not requested the case file from an appeals chamber where it was sitting, which also prevented the hearing from taking place.
