The Venezuelan non-governmental organization Penal Forum (FP) denounced this Wednesday that 245 people are in prison for political reasons in the country, including 13 women, and that more than 9,000 citizens continue to be “arbitrarily subjected” to restrictive measures of freedom.
“We have 245 political prisoners in Venezuela registered in Foro Penal, 13 of them are women,” the lawyer and vice president of the NGO announced on his Twitter account.
According to Gonzalo Himiob, the total number of people detained includes “232 men and 13 women, 118 civilians and 127 soldiers, of whom 244 are adults and one is an adolescent.”
The NGO explains that last week one person was released and that 79 of the political prisoners have already been sentenced by the courts, and 166 are awaiting trial.
Also via Twitter, the director of the FP Alfredo Romero explains that “since 2014 there have been 15,775 political arrests in Venezuela.”
“The FP has provided free assistance to more than 12,000 detainees, released today, and other victims of human rights violations. In addition, of the political prisoners, more than 9,000 people continue to be arbitrarily subjected to measures that restrict their freedom,” said Alfredo Romero.
The data of the Venezuelan political prisoners were sent to the Organization of American States (OAS) for certification.
Also on Twitter, the Penal Forum publishes other messages recalling the death of a Venezuelan in prison, asking “for justice to be done.”
“Today we remember the death, in state custody, of the political prisoner Pedro Pablo San Luís Santana, on August 14, 2020. We have not forgotten him, let justice be done,” says the NGO, specifying that he “suffered from ischemic heart disease with revascularization, heart failure and severe arterial hypertension”.
Source: TSF
