Radio Mundo Real

The ruling by the Argentinian Supreme Court of Justice last Tuesday, that could reduce convictions for hundreds of human rights abusers, “responds to political decisions”, “political agreements that are not new”, said Argentinian Nobel Peace Prize winner and head of the Peace and Justice Service (SERPAJ), Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, in an interview with Real World Radio today.

“Two of the court´s justices were appointed by Macri (Mauricio Macri, right-wing Argentinian president). There is an attempt to stop anything related to human rights politics and to benefit human rights abusers. There are no coincidences in this case, this is not a mistake by the Supreme Court”, said the renowned human rights defender.

Pérez Esquivel also called for a demonstration to take place tomorrow at Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, to reject the Supreme Court´s resolution. In addition, he urged the people from other provinces to join them. The interview with Real World Radio took place after a press conference in Buenos Aires in rejection to the judicial ruling, organized by Pérez Esquivel, Nora Cortiñas (Madres de Plaza de Mayo Línea Fundadora), Instituto Espacio para la Memoria and Encuentro Memoria Verdad y Justicia.

The Supreme Court of Justice decided on May 2nd, in a divided ruling, that the time genocide Luis Muiña served in prison before conviction should count double towards his final sentence. The ruling is based on a law repealed in 2001, known as “2x1” and does not take into account the magnitude of the crime committed.
Luis Muiña was convicted in 2011 to 13 years in prison for the kidnapping and torture of five workers of Hospital Posadas (Buenos Aires province), under the command back then of human rights abuser Reynaldo Bignone (now 89 years old), last de-facto president and currently in prison for crimes against humanity.

Three out of the five members of the Supreme Court understood that Muiña should be granted the 2x1 benefit, thus ratifying his release in April. Human rights organizations fear that this Court ruling will become the basis for the early release of many of the over 700 human rights abusers who could be granted the same treatment.

In the interview with Real World Radio, Esquivel rejected the Supreme Court´s decision and the fact that they are trying to “compare crimes against humanity with common crimes”. “This does huge harm to awareness, to the life of a people, when the Supreme Court members perfectly know that crimes against humanity are not time-barred and that they cannot be compared with common crimes. This benefits human rights abusers with freedom”, said the head of SERPAJ.

Esquivel, who was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1980, said that he has received phone calls from around the world in rejection to the court´s ruling and he highlighted the “demand for justice and remedy” for the atrocities carried out by the Dictatorship in Argentina. “Despite all this, we are calling people in all countries to defend life, human rights and freedom, because it is impossible to build democracy based on impunity”, he concluded.