The trial for the crime of Berta Cáceres is "a farce", say her family and defense

The trial for the crime of Berta Cáceres is "a farce", say her family and defense



The trial of eight accused of the murder more than two years ago of the Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres is "a farce", because the sentencing court is challenged and therefore their actions "are illegal" and "should be annulled," he said today. the family of the victim and the defense.

"The trial must be restarted and developed with the corresponding guarantees," Bertha Zúñiga, daughter of indigenous leader and environmentalist Berta Cáceres, told a news conference on Wednesday.

He argued that the sentencing court is developing "a farce," and said that his actions "are illegal while (its members) are being challenged and should be annulled."

The family of Cáceres said that they "unambiguously ignore" the actions of the sentencing court that "intends to exclude the victims and their legal representatives from the first trial", which finally began last Saturday after several postponements, for the murder of Cáceres and the attempted murder of Gustavo Castro, he added.

Bertha Zúñiga spoke Wednesday in the press in Tegucigalpa accompanied by her sister Laura and a group of family defense and the Mexican environmentalist Gustavo Castro, the only witness to the murder and who was wounded in the attack, although not seriously.

"We declare that we are not going to participate in the farce in which this judicial process has become and we vindicate our determination to exhaust all instances and tools so that effective participation and a fair trial is guaranteed," Zúñiga emphasized.

The lawyers of the family of Cáceres presented last Friday a new challenge against the sentencing court, so they did not appear that same day at the hearing called to start the trial, which finally began a day later.

For this reason, the court determined that the family and the defense had abandoned the process and left the Public Ministry as the representative of the victims.

The environmentalist's daughter told Efe that they are unaware of "the arbitrary and illegal decision" of the sentencing court when withdrawing from the process the defense of the victim's family.

Zúñiga assured that the family of Berta Cáceres will exhaust all legal procedures to get the sentencing court to rectify its decision to leave her without legal representation in the trial of the eight defendants that continues today.

Cáceres was a leader of the Lenca indigenous community and a defender of human rights, and was murdered on March 3, 2016 at her home for being against a hydroelectric project that the Energy Development Company (DESA) intended to build because it considered causing Damage to the environment.

Those accused of the murder include Mariano Díaz (Army officer), Douglas Geovanny Bustillo (ex-military) and Sergio Ramón Rodríguez, manager of the company DESA.

Zúñiga said at the press conference that the family and defense of Cáceres have "unveiled a fair collusion of all actors of the justice system to prevent the truth is known" in this case and "prevent justice from being brought to the intellectual authors of his murder, who are not in this trial. "

He stressed that the international community "should not endorse this outrage to justice" and assured that the State of Honduras "will have to respond internationally for their faults."

The lawyer who takes the case of Cáceres, Víctor Fernández, told Efe that the decision of the court to withdraw the private defense of the process "is an abuse and a violation of the rights of the victims."

In addition, it is a "shameful, unnecessary, disproportionate matter", added Fernandez, who affirmed that the defense of Berta Cáceres' family will exhaust all national and international instances.

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