CARACAS, (Reuters) – A Venezuelan judge yesterday convicted nine police officers for involvement in violence linked to a 2002 coup that toppled leftist President Hugo Chavez, the first convictions related to the brief putsch.
Chavez was briefly forced from office by military officers and opposition leaders after clashes between demonstrators in downtown Caracas killed some 20 people in events that bitterly divided the OPEC nation for years along political lines.
Relatives of the victims celebrated the ruling as a long-overdue act of justice, while Chavez’s critics and the officers’ families condemned it as a political witch-hunt that singled out those opposed to the self-styled socialist leader.
Judge Maryorie Calderon convicted police chiefs Lazaro Forero, Henry Vivas and Ivan Simonovis as “necessary accomplices” to the murder of demonstrators and the injury of scores of others. They each received 30-year sentences. Calderon also gave 30-year prison terms to three officers who were found guilty of having fired on the demonstrators.
Three other defendants were given sentences ranging from three to 18 years.
“The sentence is legally abominable and morally reprehensible,” said defense lawyer Jose Luis Tamayo.
