María Lourdes Afiuni Mora (born 8 June 1963) is a Venezuelan judge. She was head of the 31st Control Court of Caracas before she was arrested in 2009 on charges of corruption after ordering the conditional release on bail of businessman Eligio Cedeño, who then fled the country. She was moved to house arrest in Caracas in February 2011, and granted parole in June 2013, but she is still barred from practicing law, leaving the country, or using her bank account or social networks.
Human rights groups accused the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez of creating a climate of fear that threatens the independence of the judiciary. Reuters said Afiuni is "considered by opponents and jurists as one of the most emblematic political prisoners" in Venezuela, because Chávez called for her to be imprisoned.
In March 2019, she was sentenced to 5 years in prison. She was sentenced for corruption, although no alleged amounts involved were specified; the actual sentence was for "spiritual corruption". In July 2019, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, announced that the Venezuelan government had released Afiuni, along with journalist Braulio Jatar and 20 detained students. Afiuni's brother and Jatar denounced that they had not received an official statement from Venezuelan judiciary.
Afiuni's detention is considered as a landmark case of the erosion of judicial independence during the Bolivarian Revolution.
Arrest
Judge Afiuni was arrested by intelligence officers after ordering the conditional release of businessman Eligio Cedeño on 10 December 2009 pending his trial for evading currency controls. According to the United Nations, she was "charged with corruption, accessory to an escape, criminal conspiracy and abuse of power", and was "denied a public defender". A "pro-Chavez congressman" stated that a bribe was paid to Afiuni; an allegation she denies.
Afiuni said she was following United Nations' guidance when she released Cedeño, who had been detained longer than the time allowed under Venezuelan law. Cedeño had been held in pre-trial detention for three years, although Venezuelan law prescribes a two-year maximum. The pretrial detention process had been repeatedly delayed because prosecutors failed to appear at hearings. Cedeño states that "my trial was improperly suspended in 2008, when a jury was poised to acquit me after a trial which lasted more than two months", and that Afiuni's decision was rendered "in the presence of two representatives from the Attorney General's Office". He also says, "In light of the opinion of the U.N. Working Group, and given the unexcused absence of the prosecutors and the lack of objection by the other government representatives who were present, Control Judge Afiuni granted my conditional release ..."
First detention
Afiuni was incarcerated on 17 December 2009 at the National Institute of Feminine Orientation (INOF), a women's prison on the outskirts of Caracas. Her cell was close to convicts whom she sentenced to jail, and she reported that she was threatened. Responding to concerns that Lourdes Afiuni's life was in danger, Venezuelan authorities reported on 29 December 2009 that she was held separately from the general prison population.
In January 2010, the prosecution filed official charges against Afiuni for alleged irregularities in the release of Eligio Cedeño.
A hearing on Afiuni's case had been postponed several times as of April 2010. In February 2011, she was granted house arrest during recuperation after emergency surgery for cancer.
In November 2012, Afiuni denounced physical abuse and that she was sexually assaulted during her detention. According to her attorney she was raped while in prison, became pregnant, and had an abortion.
Reaction
President Hugo Chávez applauded her arrest and said she should be put away in prison for 30 years, the maximum prison sentence in Venezuela. The Caracas Bar Association asserts that the judge's decision to free Cedeño was legal, while the government says it was improper to release him without prosecutors present at the hearing.