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