2023-05-22 19:16:35
The UN experts asked the Government headed by Nayib Bukele to review the state of emergency and the “broad powers” that it provides to the Salvadoran Executive.
This measure was adopted in 2022 by the Government of El Salvador after a wave of murders related to gangs.
“Despite its obligation to protect citizens from such heinous acts, the government cannot trample on the right to a trial in the name of public safety,” the experts said.
In this sense, they asked the Salvadoran authorities not to carry out arrests based on mere suspicion and to guarantee fair treatment to people detained for allegedly belonging to gangs.
In particular, the group of international experts has expressed concern about the legal figure of “permanent flagrante delicto” that favors arrests without a warrant.
In addition, the UN specialists expressed their concern about the massive virtual trials in which, usually, between 400 and 500 sentences are handed down, after defenses lasting less than five minutes.
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“The excessive use of preventive detention, the prohibition of alternative measures, trials in absentia and the possibility of using practices such as ‘faceless judges’ and reference witnesses, violate the guarantees of due process,” they stated.
The UN experts also regretted that this state of emergency is “severely” affecting people living in the most impoverished areas of El Salvador.
The signatories to the statement are the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Margaret Satterthwaute, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, and the Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Morris Tidball-Binz.
Also read: Gangs in El Salvador: how a red zone changed after 14 months of Bukele’s war against the gangs
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