Nicolás Maduro's regime freed trade unionist Rodney Álvarez

The trade unionist of the state company Ferrominera del Orinoco Rodney Álvarez, detained for ten years and accused of murdering another worker during an assembly, was released early this Friday, as confirmed to the EFE agency by the university professor and director of the Venezuelan Observatory of Freedom of Association, Jackeline Ritcher.

This is the trade unionist for whom Venezuela's Attorney General, Tarek William Saab, requested full freedom last Monday through a letter posted on his Twitter account.

“Filed today before the court of the case: request for release in favor of Rodney Álvarez by the Public Prosecutor's Office,” the prosecutor said in a letter detailing that Álvarez's preliminary hearing was held on April 25, 2013, where it was decided to go to trial, for the alleged commission of the crime of qualified homicide .

However, Alvarez was released under presentation and not with full freedom, as Ritcher told EFE.

He said that Álvarez was informed of his release around midnight on Thursday and called his lawyers to come and look for him at the El Rodeo II Judicial Internship, located on the outskirts of Caracas, where he was serving the 15-year sentence handed down to him at the last hearing of the trial against him, on June 8, 2021.

“They had him sitting at the entrance to the prison. He had already been thrown into the streets in a terribly dangerous area, that is, the State had him imprisoned for 11 years and then throws him (...) at dawn, in Venezuela, in an extremely dangerous area,” said Ritcher.

He explained that the trade unionist's release ballot had been issued three days ago, but it was not ratified by the Ministry of Penitentiary Affairs, which the union leader described as an irregularity.

He also reported that during his time in prison, Álvarez suffered several attacks from other fellow prisoners and their custodians.

“He is suffering from high blood pressure, because two weeks ago in the cell where he was in court, for a reason that nobody knows, a tear gas bomb was thrown inside the cell,” Ritcher said.

Alvarez's case became a flag for trade unionists, assuring that his colleague did not commit the crime of murder that he is accused of and that people who attended a workers' assembly are witnesses to it.

Last July, the so-called Venezuelan Trade Union Coalition explained to EFE that Álvarez had been imprisoned for ten years in a process that was “delaying”, because he was recently sentenced to 15 years in prison and the authorities refused to count all his time in prison as part of the sentence.

(With information from EFE)

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