Judge: María Lourdes Afiuni

This case is a case among thousands of cases of lack of independence from Venezuelan justice. It all started when the opposition Eligio Cedeño was detained by Venezuelan authorities on February 8, 2007 on charges of circumventing government controls currency to obtain dollars. This was another case of political enprisonment, he was accused of crimes without any evidence.


After more than two years in jail the case got into the hands of Judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni who has a reputation for being strict and inquisitive, to abide by the law whatever the result. For a month Maria Lourdes Afiuni studied and considered the whole case, noting that there wasn't proof to support prisoner Cedeño. On Jan. 10, she gave an interim measure of freedom under certain conditions, based on the opinion of the task force arrests united nations arbitrary, the court made a decision consistent with the law. In a few minutes Judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni was arrested without a warrant, and was transferred from the Disip to INOF where today she is a prisioner and where she lives with inmates who were imprisoned by her. These inmates on one occasion tried to burn her alive for revenge.

Chavez accuses the Venezuelan Judge Afiuni of corruption and abuse of power after releasing a banker known opponent who had been imprisoned without trial. Hugo Chavez angrily demanded that Judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni will carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and without hesitation, also spoke of creating a law of execution... see the link below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPfUiVBpbBo