Eight police officers were ordered to stand trial in connection with the robbery and vandalism at the Tiferet Israel Synagogue in the Maripérez district of Caracas on January 30 this year [reported HERE on YWN]. In all, 11 individuals will be tried in the case and face prison sentences if they’re convicted.
Eight of the accused are of the Metropolitan Police.
Also charged were Luis Castillo Guerrero, an officer with the municipal police in the Libertador municipality in west Caracas and Yadira Soledad Torres, a female detective with the scientific and investigative police, CICPC.
Two civilians, Orlando José Pérez Díaz and Rafael Enrique Colina Mogollón were also sent for trial. All 10 defendants are accused of “aggravated robbery,” disrespect for religious belief and criminal association. Milla Mesía and Colina Mogollón were in addition charged with hiding firearms and severe misuse of public funds.
The duty chief of security at the synagogue, Víctor Eduardo Escalona Lovera, was also charged with robbery, simulating a punishable offence and making false testimony to a public official.
All the accused were ordered to be held in detention.
The attack on the synagogue stirred fears that an outbreak of anti-semitism was taking place in Venezuela, a country with a reputation for religious tolerance. An estimated 98% of the population is nominally Roman Catholic.
Amid suspicions that there might be a political connotation to the case – only shortly before the incident, President Hugo Chávez had roundly criticized Israel’s military action in the Gaza Strip and voiced support for the Palestinian cause – the government quickly came under pressure to take action, and vowed to do so.
The accused were caught in series of raids in different districts of the capital and Miranda state during the night of February 7 and 8, and first brought before a court four days later. No date was set for the trial.
(Source: Latin American Herald Tribune)
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One Response
Again, are we surprised? A country that has a Castro in training as supreme dictator should not use Jews as targets for their baseless hatred?
We all need Moshiach now to lead us back to OUR LAND where no one can harm us.