HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST CLEARED OF ACCUSATION OF

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 000085 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KCRM KJUS KDEM PHUM PGOV GT SUBJECT: HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST CLEARED OF ACCUSATION OF ATTEMPTED MURDER ¶1. (U) Summary: At a January 23 pre-trial hearing, a Guatemalan court found insufficient evidence to charge human rights activist Jorge Luis Lopez Sologaistoa of attempted murder for the July 2008 armed assault of a sex worker. Peace Brigades International had requested Embassy intervention on the case after a warrant for Lopez's arrest had been issued. Local and international human rights groups had highlighted the case as an alleged example of police intimidation of human rights activists. End Summary. ¶2. (U) On January 23, the Ninth Criminal Court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to charge human rights activist Jorge Luis Lopez Sologaistoa of attempted murder in connection with a July 2008 armed assault on sex worker Axel Leonel Donis Gonzalez (alias Laila). The judge, however, ordered house arrest pending further investigation of allegations of obstruction of justice. ¶3. (SBU) Lopez, Executive Director of the Organization to Support an Integrated Sexuality to Confront AIDS (OASIS),an NGO that works to prevent HIV/AIDS and to protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, had maintained his innocence since November 4 when warrants for his arrest and that of five other suspects were issued. He claimed that the police unjustly accused him of attempted murder because of his work on human rights. ¶4. (SBU) On January 15, Lopez told poloff that after he had been informed by certain individuals of the planned assault, he alerted the police and located Laila, who lives on the street. He said that after warning Laila he had left before she was attacked. Lopez believed that the attack was in retaliation for Laila's past aggression against other sex workers, and that she named him among six individuals responsible for the attack because of his position with OASIS and his organization's support to sex workers. After the arrest warrant was issued, Lopez locked himself in his office for 50 days to evade arrest, while reaching out to local and international human rights organizations and the diplomatic community to intervene on his behalf. ¶5. (SBU) Lopez told poloff on January 26 that he appeared voluntarily at his hearing and that the judge stated that it was clear that he had not been involved in the attempted murder. The judge ruled, however, that there may be grounds for bringing a charge of obstruction of justice, which under Article 474 of the Penal Code carries a prison sentence. Lopez confirmed that he is now under house arrest and can move freely within the department of Guatemala without authorization, but must report to the court once every 30 days and obtain authorization to travel outside the department. ¶6. (SBU) Lopez noted that several human rights organizations and members of the international community, including the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office, Peace Brigades International, the President's Commission on Human Rights, and foreign embassies, accompanied him to the hearing and others were closely following the case. ¶7. (SBU) Comment: The highly visible public campaign waged by local human rights groups and the international community may have influenced the outcome of Lopez's pre-trial hearing. While Lopez is no longer under investigation for attempted murder, he remains under investigation on allegations of obstruction of justice, an accusation he claims was a concession to the Public Ministry (Attorney General's Office) by a judge who did not want to completely overrule the Ministry. It is still not clear, however, that Lopez was targeted because of his human rights work. Qtargeted because of his human rights work. McFarland