BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA: ARBITRARY DETENTION OF ORESTE ALFREDO SCHIAVO LAVIERI

The International League Against Arbitrary Detention urges the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to take all the necessary actions to implement the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Opinion No. 15/2024 concerning Oreste Alfredo Schiavo Lavieri, asking the Venezuelan Government to immediately and unconditionally release him and to accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations in accordance with international law.

Read the full WGAD Opinion concerning Oreste Alfredo Schiavo Lavieri (Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela): Opinion No. 15/2024.

ARREST OF ENTREPRENEUR MR. SCHIAVO LAVIERI FOR HIS INVOLVEMENT WITH EXILED DISSIDENT MILITARIES

Oreste Alfredo Schiavo Lavieri was born in 1957. He is an economist and entrepreneur with Italian and Venezuelan citizenships.

According to the source, on 8 June 2020, he was arrested together with a relative, by authorities who did not identify themselves. Mr. Schiavo Lavieri and his relative were then detained in the residential complex of Puerto Escondido (Guarira) by members of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service. These officials indicated that they were investigating a General and asked Mr. Schiavo Lavieri and his relative if they knew him, then proceeded to detain them.

Afterwards, it became known that the General was linked to the alleged "Operation Gedeon," in which a group of dissident Venezuelan military members in exile supposedly planned to overthrow the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

His relative was then released on 12 June 2020 - on the same day Mr. Schiavo Lavieri's house was searched by the same authorities. On 17 June 2020, he was presented before the Fourth State Judge of First Instance in Control Functions. The preliminary hearing started on 24 October 2020, where he was accused of treason, financing of terrorism and criminal association.

Ever since his arrest, Mr. Schiavo Lavieri's state of health has deteriorated to the point that his life was at risk at the time of the source's communication. As such, on 7 July 2021, the defence submitted a request for a review of his detention on health ground, but as the rest of the requests, it was denied.

The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela was given the possibility to answer these allegations, which it did on 5 February 2024.

HELD INCOMMUNICADO AND SUBJECTED TO UNJUSTIFIED PRE-TRIAL DETENTION

According to the source, Mr. Schiavo Lavieri was detained by Bolivarian National Intelligence Service agents without a judicial warrant or equivalent document. On the contrary, according to the Government, Mr. Schiavo Lavieri's detention had a legal basis. The Government claimed that on 8 June 2020, the Public Prosecutor's Office requested an arrest warrant for Mr. Schiavo Lavieri, which was then shown to him to inform him of the reasons for his detention. The Working Group noted that the Government attached a photocopy of the detention order dated of the 8th of June 2020. However, the source claimed that Mr. Schiavo Lavieri was neither shown this order nor informed of the reasons for his arrest at the time of detention. Based on the contrary information received, the Working Group did not reach any conclusion on this matter.

Nonetheless, according to the source, Mr. Schiavo Lavieri was held incommunicado for 12 days, and the Government could not provide any information to dispute this. That meant that he was not brought before a judicial authority within the 48 hours of his arrest. Therefore, the Working Group concluded that the Government acted in violation of articles 3, 6, and 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and articles 9 and 16 of the Covenant.

Moreover, the source claimed that pre-trial detention was imposed on Mr. Schiavo Lavieri for an extended period without an individualised assessment. The Government explained that prolonged pre-trial detention was due to delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The source refutes these claims, pointing out that the highest Court of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela had allowed the hearing to be held virtually to avoid unjustified delays. In that regard, the Working Group recalled its deliberation No. 11 on the prevention of arbitrary detention in the context of a public health emergency, where it emphasised that a public health emergency places an additional burden on authorities, highlighting the vulnerability related to COVID-19 for individuals, such as Mr. Schiavo Lavieri, who are over 60 years old. This was not respected in the present case. Without arguments provided by the Government, the Working Group considered that his detention violated article 9(3) of the Covenant.

In conclusion, the arrest and detention of Mr. Schiavo Lavieri did not meet the conditions outlined by the Working Group, they were therefore considered to be arbitrary under Category I.

DENIED ACCESS TO AN INDEPENDENT TRIBUNAL, THE RIGHT TO THE PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE AND THE RIGHT TO EFFECTIVE LEGAL ASSISTANCE

According to the source, Mr. Schiavo Lavieri did not have access to an independent and impartial tribunal, as it explained that the independence and impartiality of the courts were questionable. The source presented an analysis of the appointment and dismissal of judges in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The Working Group noted that the lack of definitive, stable, and guaranteed appointments undermined the stability of judges' positions and, consequently, the required judicial independence, also recalling previous notes on the judicial structure of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for cases related to terrorism and its financing. In that regard, the Working Group considered this situation a violation of article 14 of the Covenant relating to the right to a fair trial, including access to a competent, independent, and impartial tribunal. Moreover, this specific situation was not refuted by the Government, which urged the Working Group to present the case to the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers for appropriate action.

Furthermore, the source claimed that Mr. Schiavo Lavieri's right to the presumption of innocence was violated as the Vice President of the Republic and the President of the National Assembly publicly labelled Mr. Schiavo Lavieri guilty during press conferences before the hearing. The Government did not provide any information in that regard so the Working Group found the statements to be in violation of article 11(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 14(2) of the Covenant.

Lastly, according to the source, Mr. Schiavo Lavieri was denied access to a lawyer of his choice and assigned a public defender against his will. The government maintained that the he was only granted a public defender because he stated that he did not have a private lawyer. The Working Group considered that Mr. Schiavo Lavieri's incommunicado detention inherently deprived him of his right to legal assistance at a critical stage of the criminal proceedings. As a result, the Working Group found that these violations fundamentally compromised his right to legal assistance and to prepare a defence, as well as the principle of equality of arms, guaranteed in articles 10 and 11(1) of Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 14(3)(b) of the Covenant.

The Working Group concluded that Mr. Schiavo Lavieri's detention is arbitrary due to the denial of fundamental human rights, such as the presumption of innocence, the right to be judged by an independent tribunal, and the right to have a lawyer of his choice, all of which qualified his detention as arbitrary in accordance with Category III.

CONCLUSIONS OF THE UN WORKING GROUP AGAINST ARBITRARY DETENTION

In light of the foregoing, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention considered that the detention of Oreste Alfredo Schiavo Lavieri was arbitrary and fell under categories I and III, as his deprivation of liberty contravened articles 3, 6, 9, 10 and 11 of the Universal declaration of Human Rights and articles 9, 14, and 16 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

The Working Group recommended that the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela take the necessary steps to remedy the situation of Oreste Alfredo Schiavo Lavieri without delay and bring it into conformity with the relevant international norms. The Working Group considered that, taking into account all circumstances of the case, the appropriate remedy would be to release him immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law.