(Washington, D.C., March 8, 2000)-- President Eduardo Frei should grant
a
pardon to journalist José Ale Aravena, who was convicted last month of
"insulting" the former president of the Supreme Court in Chile, Human
Rights Watch said today.
"We are asking President Frei to rectify this injustice as a final act
of
his mandate. He could make a valuable contribution to Chilean democracy by doing
so."
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José Miguel Vivanco
Executive director of the
Americas
division of Human Rights Watch
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The Supreme Court gave Ale a suspended 541-day prison sentence on
February
15 for having "insulted" the court's former president, Servando Jordan
Lopez. Ale was accused of defamation of a public authority, under art.
6(b) State Security Law. The Frei government has proposed to repeal the
article but the bill has been stuck in Congress for almost a year.
Human Rights Watch said that Ale's conviction violated his right to
freedom
of expression, and that the composition of the Supreme Court chamber
that
heard the case did not offer him guarantees of impartiality.
"We are asking President Frei to rectify this injustice as a final act
of
his mandate," said José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the
Americas
division of Human Rights Watch. Frei's term will expire on March 11,
2000.
"He could make a valuable contribution to Chilean democracy by doing
so."
Vivanco said he would ask President-Elect Ricardo Lagos to give top
priority to repealing the State Security Law, and to grant an amnesty to
all journalists and politicians who have been convicted or charged under
it.
A November 1998 Human Rights Watch report, LIMITS OF TOLERANCE: Freedom of Expression and the Public Debate in Chile, documented the cases of
twenty-five people who have been charged under this law since the return
to
democrcacy in Chile in 1990. In April last year, journalist Alejandra
Matus
had to leave Chile to avoid arrest in a similar case and is now in the
United States seeking political asylum. Her book, The Black Book of
Chilean Justice is still banned in Chile due to another criminal
complaint
by Justice Jordan.
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