Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Friday 11 august 2017
Judge rejects Australian woman’s drug plea deal in Colombia

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) the 22-year-old to leave ney, Herran Vargas, said in gin a trial against you,” a captivated attention in
— A judge in Colombia re- prison after serving six years an interview with The Asso- court office translating pro- Australia and shone a light
jected a plea deal offered and paying a fine. ciated Press. ceedings to Sainsbury said. on foreign drug mules in
to an Australian woman But a magistrate in Bogo- “If there are threats, there Sainsbury, accompanied Colombia, the world’s
charged with drug traffick- ta refused to accept the can’t be a plea deal.” in court by her family, nod- largest cocaine producer.
ing this week, calling into agreement, asking why Prosecutors declined to ded her head calmly in As tourism to Colombia
question the prosecution’s prosecutors did not exam- appeal the judge’s deci- response before being led has boomed, the coun-
effort to establish her guilt. ine her phone and email sion. out of court by a heavy try’s drug cartels have in-
Cassandra Sainsbury’s law- records after Sainsbury said “Tomorrow, she will submit contingent of police offi- creasingly begun recruit-
yer and prosecutors had she’d acted under threat. the indictment against you cers and a bevy of journal- ing foreigners to smuggle
reached an agreement “She maintains she did this with evidentiary elements ists. cocaine out of the South
that would have allowed against her will,” her attor- that she has in order to be- Sainsbury’s arrest in April American country.q

Venezuela: Court removes 5th opposition mayor, orders arrest

By FABIOLA SANCHEZ “This is a continued coup
Associated Press against municipal public
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) authority,” he said.
— A fifth opposition mayor In a press conference Thurs-
in Venezuela was removed day, he said mayors can
from his post and ordered only be removed if they
under arrest in a continuing die, resign, are revoked in
crackdown by the strug- a popular vote or are ap-
gling nation’s government prehended for a criminal
on President Nicolas Madu- offense.
ro’s adversaries. In its ruling, the Supreme
A small group of young Court noted that Smolan-
people, some of them sky has been barred from
masked, set up barricades leaving the country and
of strewn metal objects in directed the nation’s intel-
the eastern Caracas district ligence agency to alert In-
of El Hatillo on Thursday to terpol to help “determine
protest the previous day’s his whereabouts and cap-
Supreme Court decision to ture outside national terri-
order Mayor David Smo- tory.”
lansky imprisoned for 15 Of the five mayors recently
months for not obeying or- sentenced, just one is in jail.
ders to shut down the pro- All others have managed
tests. In this June 24, 2016 photo, David Smolansky, mayor of El Hatillo district, center, shouts with others to flee or remain under-
We can’t allow “the dicta- standing in line, after learning the validation center to certify the authenticity of petitioners’ ground.
torship to hunt down, im- signatures has closed without attending them, in Caracas, Venezuela. The government-packed The court also ordered that
prison and treat our mayors Supreme Court on Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017, ordered the removal and imprisonment for 15 months a copy of the decision be
like criminals,” said Andres of the Caracas-area mayor for not obeying orders to shut down protests in his district. sent to Delcy Rodriguez,
(AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Paez, a lawyer who joined the president of a new,
the protest. “I want to tell you all that hours after it levied a similar According to their figures, all-powerful constitutional
Smolansky, a former stu- I continue being a public sentence against Ramon about a third of the na- assembly and head of a
dent activist, issued a video servant by vocation and Muchacho, another Cara- tion’s opposition mayors “truth commission” ap-
from an undisclosed loca- conviction,” Smolansky cas-area mayor. Opposi- have been removed from proved shortly after its in-
tion in which he called on said, sounding defiant but tion leaders decried both office or jailed or are under stallation last Friday.
residents of the El Hatillo to at ease. “My commitment rulings, calling them part of threat of arrest. The commission will wield
take to the streets to uphold to restoring freedom in an ongoing campaign by Gerardo Blyde, an opposi- unusual power to pros-
their right to representation Venezuela remains intact.” the high court to illegally tion mayor of Baruta, a city ecute and punish those
against what he called the His arrest was ordered by remove anti-government of more than 350,000 near who the government de-
government’s “political fir- the government-stacked mayors from their elected the capital, equated it to a termines responsible for the
ing squad.” Supreme Court less than 48 posts. sort of “Russian roulette.” last four months of unrest.q

Judge rules Dominican priest to be held in altar boy’s death

SANTO DOMINGO, Domini- hit twice in the back of capital Monday. continue to investigate a demands for money after
can Republic (AP) — A Do- the head with a hammer, “A person who does some- case. paying the boy more than
minican judge on Thursday suffocated with a plastic thing like this is not human, Defense attorney Miguel $4,000.
found enough evidence bag and stabbed nearly a they never were, they’re Liria declined to comment Prosecutor Olga Llaverias
to hold a Catholic priest in week ago. They also said the devil!” yelled the vic- on police and court docu- said those statements can-
jail for one year after police his hands and feet were tim’s father, Freddy Car- ments that state Taveras al- not be used as evidence
detained him in the killing tied with shoelaces and rion, after the court hearing legedly told authorities he because they were not
of a 16-year-old who once that he was gagged. ended. sexually abused the boy part of an interrogation
served as an altar boy in his Police arrested 41-year- Local law allows Domini- for three years and killed and no defense attorney
church. old Rev. Elvis Taveras after can authorities to tempo- him because he was be- was present. She said Tav-
Prosecutors said the vic- the teen’s body was found rarily hold suspects in jail ing blackmailed with pic- eras has not spoken since
tim, Fernelis Carrion, was near a road north of the before a trial as authorities tures and videos and more his arrest.q