The Venezuelan media is reporting tonight that a judge has ordered the immediate release of the political prisoner Eligio Cedeño – a client of Robert Amsterdam. The trial judge has not yet responded to the order, and other decisions in this case have been routinely ignored by lower courts under political instructions from the government, so we will have to see if rule of law will prevail in the case. As we have written here many times, the two years and eight months of pre-trial detention without any conviction of a crime represents a serious violation of local and international laws. The following is my translation of an article published in El Universal:
Appeals Court Rules for Trial in Freedom for Eligio Cedeño
The Eighth Court of Appeals ruled today that the businessman Eligio Cedeño should be judged in freedom, for the cause it is pursuing in the Microstar case.
The announcement was made by Vicente Puppio, defense lawyer for Cedeño, who indicated that the 39th control court must issue the release order in the coming hours.
During a telephone interview with Globovision, Puppio indicated thathis defendant turned himself voluntarily to the authorities over twoyears and eight months ago and since then Cedeño has acted according tolaw while his rights have been consistently violated. There is noflight risk or any other reason which would justify the pre-trialdetention measures of Cedeño.
Cedeño was charged with the offense of embezzlement of financialresources, as part of a process being pursued for the allegedirregularities committed in the request for foreign exchange byConsorcio Microstar.He was charged in November 2005 and February 2007, the ThirdTribunal acting as control court of Caracas issued the order forpre-trial detention.
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