(New York) - Human Rights Watch called for the release of Chilean businessman Eduardo Yañez, who was arrested today in Santiago and faces prosecution on charges of lack of respect for authority. Yañez criticized the Chilean judiciary on a television show late last year, and he now faces up to five years of imprisonment under a criminal law provision that covers anyone who "in word or deed gravely insults the higher courts of justice."
"With this action the Chilean Supreme Court has taken a giant leap backwards on freedom of expression," said José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch. "Criticism of the authorities, including the judiciary, is part of the cut and thrust of public debate in a democracy. The courts are supposed to protect this right, not to violate it."
Yañez was a panelist on an award-winning Chilean debate show called "The Thermometer" that seeks to gauge opinion from ordinary members of the public on controversial issues. On November 27, the topic was miscarriage of justice. After being asked for his reaction to the testimony of a woman who said that she had received no word of apology from the courts after being wrongly sentenced to fifteen years in jail for killing her infant son, an indignant Yañez said "the justice system is immoral, cowardly and corrupt . . . I think not to show its face is a sign of moral cowardice (mariconada)."
Yañez expected to be detained and charged under Article 263 of the penal code last week, but after hearing his account Judge Juan Muñoz unusually decided to give him ten working days to apologize or persuade the Supreme Court to drop the prosecution. However, Justice Mario Garrido Montt, the newly appointed president of the Supreme Court, refused to meet with Yañez or his lawyers. Human Rights Watch was also denied a meeting with Justice Garrido last week.
More than thirty Chileans have been prosecuted, and several jailed, for the crime of contempt of authority since Chile regained democracy in 1990. All were charged under a provision of the Law of State Security that was finally repealed last year after a long campaign by human rights groups.
Chile's congress, however, voted down a proposal by the government to repeal the similarly worded provisions of the penal code used in this case. Until now, these penal code provisions have been rarely used.
"It is a disgrace that it was the Supreme Court, whose duty it is to safeguard the rights of citizens, which chose to break new ground with this prosecution," said Vivanco.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which interceded with the Chilean government on Yañez' behalf, has given the government seven days to explain its action, which clearly violates Chile's obligations under Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights.
