Two innocent Peruvian men have been re-arrested to be re-tried after they had been informed by the Peruvian Supreme Court that their absolutions in a lower court had been nullified.

According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), the Supreme Court has ordered the issue for a re-trial of Augusto Camacho Alarcón, who was absolved and released on 26 October 2004, and Carlos Jorge Garay, who was absolved and released on 2 November 2004. The two men will be charged of terrorism and will return to prison whilst they await their trial.

An appeal for international action has been issued by CSW partner organisation, Peace and Hope, a human rights charity. Both men have already spent 12 years in prison before being released last year, for crimes of terrorism that they were found not to have committed.

As a result of the unjust imprisonment, Camacho Alarcón suffers from a serious lung condition. Garay was considered to be a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. After a long judicial process by the lower National Penal Court, both men have been declared innocent of all charges of terrorism.

“Both cases are characteristic of the legal insecurity for individuals who have been absolved of the crime of terrorism yet are now being submitted to yet another judicial trial which has also led to an order that they be recaptured and imprisoned once again,” said Peace and Hope lawyer, Wuille Ruiz Figueroa, who was also wrongly charged and imprisoned for five years in the 1990’s before being found innocent.

He continued, “These are people, who during a few months of freedom, after more than 12 years of imprisonment, have been undergoing the difficult process of reinsertion into society and trying to return to a normal life.”

CSW has supported Camacho Alarcón and Garay during the time of their imprisonment and retrials. They are now calling on the Peruvian government to ensure that the two men are not forced to be imprisoned once again and go through another trial for crimes that they have been absolved of by the Peruvian court system.

“The Peruvian government must demonstrate its continued commitment to the respect for human rights and judicial reform by ensuring that its citizens are not submitted to double jeopardy,” said Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of CSW.

He concluded saying, “The situation of Augusto Camacho Alarcón and Carlos Jorge Garay is not only traumatic for them and for their loved ones but also seems to reveal a very disturbing deterioration in the area of human rights in Peru.”