Human Rights in Honduras http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/honduras/ ---------------------------- Casa Alianza February 20th, 1997 Tegucigalpa, Honduras EX-DIRECTOR OF COMAYAGUA JAIL ARRESTED FOR THE TORTURE OF MINORS After more than 15 months of national and international pressure, yesterday the ex-Director of the Comayagua (Honduras) jail, Aquilino Sorto, was arrested and accused of torturing several adult prisoners and up to 12 children who were illegally detained together with adults in the jail. With a judicial order from the 1st Sectional Judge of Comayagua, Gustavo Perez, , Sorto was detained yesterday by members of FUSEP - the Honduran police. He is currently detained in the FUSEP headquarters in the city. This afternoon Sorto was to appear before the judge to make his first declarations regarding the charges. The arrest warrant which was emitted yesterday by the judge and directed to Major Rodolfo Calix Hollman, Director of the FUSEP in Comayagua, ordered "the immediate capture of the individual known as Aquilino Sorto, for supposedly being responsible for the crime of lack of responsibility in upholding rights guaranteed under the Constitution of the Republic, in violation of Jose Diego Hernandez Amaya, Carlos Roberto Gomez Castellanos and four minors (their names are withheld)". In November 1995, the then director Sorto ordered and, according to witnesses, participated in, the torture of up to 12 minors who were handcuffed and tied up with their hands behind their backs. The children were then hung by their arms behind their backs from a wall for several hours, during which time they were beaten. The two adult victims, who are still jailed in the same center, have already declared in the case, giving details of the mistreatment and torture of which they were subjects. One of the children affected has also declared. After the public complaints regarding the torture by Casa Alianza's Legal Aid Office and the Committee of Detained-Disappeared Family Members in Honduras Members (COFADEH), on December 26th, 1995 the Ministry of the Interior and Justice (the government agency responsible for the 24 jails in Honduras) and the Appeals Court of Comayagua, sent a commission to investigate the complaints. This commission did not speak with the torture victims. "Determining that the public complaints are false", the Commission members (lawyer Ixtayul Randolfo Nunez, President of the Appeals Court of the Department (State) of Comayagua; Notier Mercado, 2nd Judge of Letters; and the Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior for this Department, Iris Guerrero de Rivera) filed the investigation into the torture of the children. In May 1996, Casa Alianza pressured the Special Fiscal agent for Children and the Handicapped, Teolinda Pineda de Aguilar, to fulfil her responsibility and order an investigation in order to support the Auxiliary Fiscal Agent in Comayagua, Karen Herrera, who, in a professional manner, was gathering evidence, including forensic reports on the torture victims. "We are relieved that the Judge has finally moved in this case", explained Gustavo Escoto, the Honduran lawyer for Casa Alianza's Legal Aid Office. "Now we can inform the Inter American Commission on Human Rights and even the European Parliament of the advances. I hope that the case moves forward". Casa Alianza, a branch of the New York based "Covenant House", continues with its petitions to the Attorney general's Office to criminally prosecute judges who illegally sent the children to the Comayagua jail, where they were mixed in cells together with adults. This is in violation of the Honduran Constitution's Article 122, which prohibits people under the age of 18 to be jailed with adults. Casa Alianza has initiated more than 20 criminal complaints against judges in this central american country. "The judges who sent the children to the Comayagua jail, where they were tortured, are also criminally responsible for several crimes including abuse of authority, illegal detention amongst others", explained casa Alianza's lawyer, "And they too need to face the music". ----------------- For more information, please contact Bruce Harris at or in Central America at +506-253-5439; fax +506-224-5689 -------------------------------------------- Casa Alianza/Covenant House Latin America SJO 1039 PO Box 025216, Miami FL 33102-5216 USA Tel. in Costa Rica: +506-253-5439 or 253-6338 Fax in Costa Rica: +506-224-5689 Home page address: http://www.casa-alianza.org ------------------------------- "In their little worlds in which children have their existence, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice...." Charles Dickens, "Great Expectations"