Argentine political prisoner Milagro Sala marks one year of arbitrary detention
Argentine indigenous rights activist and Parlasur parliamentarian Milagro Sala today marks one year of arbitrary detention at the behest of Jujuy Province Governor Gerardo Morales, a close ally of the right-wing administration of President Mauricio Macri.
Her detention, which took place at her home without a court warrant on January 16, 2016, has been condemned by the United Nations, the Organization of American States (OAS), Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Pope Francis.
A press conference convened by the Committee for Freedom for Milagro Sala was held at the Buenos Aires offices of her co-operative, Tupac Amaru. Featured speakers included retired Supreme Court Justice Raúl Zaffaroni; Mothers of Plaza de Mayo - Founding Line leader Taty Almeida; the head of the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS, a leading Argentine human rights watchdog), Horacio Verbitsky; CTA labor federation leader Hugo Yasky; and the leader of the Suteba teachers' union, Roberto Baradel.
A popular cookout was also held in her honor in San Salvador de Jujuy, as well as events in cities nationwide.
The Sala case
Milagro Sala, 52, was arrested without a court warrant at her home in San Salvador de Jujuy on January 16, 2016, accused of "instigating" an protest camp in front of the Jujuy Government Palace, which lasted 52 days. The Provincial Prosecutor with jurisdiction in the area, Darío Osinaga, refused to order her arrest at the time, was later dismissed, and is now himself facing charges of "obstruction of justice, malfeasance, and abuse of authority."
Sala was ordered released for lack or charges on January 29. "But she was not released," CELS lawyers recalled, "because that day, a local judge was called back from holiday in order to approve a separate warrant accusing Sala of fraud, extortion, and conspiracy."
The judge (Gastón Mercau) is the son-in-law of a Morales appointee to the Provincial Supreme Court - which he expanded from five to nine members days before Sala's arrest. No evidence has been provided by the state for any of these charges, and no Habeas Corpus petitions filed by Sala's lawyer (Daniel Igolnikov) have been accepted by Jujuy courts.
Provincial authorities have pursued further charges against her based solely on testimony from two individuals who then received substantial benefits from Governor Morales - including an indigent man (René Arellano) who was awarded a public contract, and a convicted murderer (Jorge Paes) who was exonerated for a 2007 murder without a retrial or new evidence of any kind.
Sala remained in prison without sentencing until December 28, when she was issued a suspended sentence of three years based on this testimony. The charges stemmed from a 2009 egg-throwing incident against Morales.
Arbitrary detention
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled on October 21 that Sala's arrest was in fact arbitrary, and urged Macri to release her immediately. This request was echoed by the Secretary General of the OAS and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which declared on December 4 that her detention violates international rights of protest and speech.
Journalist Raúl Noro, Sala's husband, was himself detained for four months without charges after leading a protest calling for her release on July 14.
"The province of Jujuy," Sala said in an interview with the Buenos Aires news daily Tiempo Argentino, "is a laboratory to put a brake on the fight for rights throughout Argentina."
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