Human Rights Activist Gonz\u00e1lez Arrested in Colombia
\nFor Immediate Release: August 23, 2011 – Human Rights First<\/p>\n
Washington, DC \u2013 Human Rights First condemns the ongoing harassment and persecution of Colombian human rights defender Principe Gabriel Gonz\u00e1lez, who was arrested last Friday to serve seven years imprisonment on trumped-up charges.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a prominent student activist and the Regional Coordinator for the Political Prisoners Solidarity Committee, Gonz\u00e1lez was instrumental in exposing the ill treatment of Colombian political prisoners. This advocacy led to his own arrest in 2006 when he was detained on politically motivated charges of rebellion and association with the FARC guerrilla group,\u201d said Human Rights First\u2019s Quinn O\u2019Keefe.<\/p>\n
After Gonz\u00e1lez was detained for 15 months awaiting trial, a judge acquitted him of all charges, finding them entirely baseless. The prosecution appealed the court\u2019s decision. In March 2009, the Superior Tribunal of Bucaramanga overturned the acquittal and sentenced Gonz\u00e1lez to an additional seven years imprisonment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe prosecution relied on false accusations from two witnesses to impede Gonz\u00e1lez\u2019s human rights work and secure a conviction. The first witness couldn\u2019t identify or even name Gonz\u00e1lez before he was detained, and the second witness actually admitted to providing statements under duress from the prosecutors,\u201d added O\u2019Keefe.<\/p>\n
In December2010 the Supreme Court declined to hear Gonz\u00e1lez\u2019s appeal, and he was arrested last Friday in Pamplona. He had been living in exile, but returned to Colombia to visit his ailing mother.<\/p>\n
In 2009, Human Rights First released In the Dock and Under the Gun: Baseless Prosecutions of Human Rights Defenders in Colombia, a comprehensive report that documents the widespread use of trumped-up charges to silence Colombian human rights activists. A year later, in 2009, Human Rights First celebrated Gonz\u00e1lez\u2019s human rights work with its prestigious human rights award. …source<\/a><\/p>\n