Peru Amazon leaders acquitted of killing police during clash
Source: Associated Press
Peru Amazon leaders acquitted of killing police during clash
Sep 22, 10:03 PM EDT
By FRANKLIN BRICENO
Associated Press
LIMA, Peru (AP) -- A court in Peru acquitted on Thursday 52 Amazon natives for the murder of 12 police officers seven years ago during protests against laws that indigenous groups said facilitated the usurpation of their lands for oil and timber development.
The court in Bagua also struck down charges of rebellion and causing serious injury presented by prosecutors during the years-long trial.
Officials said the people of accused of shooting the officers during the protests tested negative for gunfire residue. Judge Gonzalo Zabarburu said the true killers have still not been identified.
The confrontation, in which hundreds of police tried to dislodge members of local indigenous tribes blocking a highway, occurred at a remote area called the Devil's Curve, where the Andean foothills meet the Amazon jungle. It is not far from the city of Bagua.
Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_PERU_AMAZON_TRIAL?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-09-22-21-51-47
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More images, some graphic, of Bagua Massacre:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1331&bih=585&q=bagua+massacre&oq=bagua+massacre&gs_l=img.3..0i24k1.1520.5872.0.6408.14.10.0.4.4.0.261.1712.2-7.7.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..3.11.1725...0j0i8i30k1.L4a19BaQtIo#imgrc=7EbrmxQL-UTrkM%3A
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Dozens of Indigenous Absolved in Peru's 2009 'Baguazo' Massacre
A group of Indigenous people brandish spears while blocking a highway in Peru's Amazonian
region. | Photo: Reuters
Published 22 September 2016 (7 hours 4 minutes ago)
According to autopsy reports, the police killed in the massacre died from gunshots. Witnesses say Indigenous protesters were only armed with spears.
Dozens of Indigenous people in Peru have been absolved Thursday of accusations that they were responsible for a massacre seven years ago, known as the “Baguazo,” that killed at least 32 people, including several police, during an intense conflict as the military cracked down on protesters fighting to block oil drilling in the Amazon rain forest.
After four years of trial, the criminal court of Bagua stated that the people accused of blocking the roads were absolved "because the defense of the environment" was a "superior purpose," according to the CNDDH, a collective of 78 human rights groups in Peru.
The court also threw out the prosecutors' allegations that the people accused of homicide were carrying guns, as the medical experts had found, and that they were the direct authors of the homicides.
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Dozens-of-Indigenous-Absolved-in-Perus-2009-Baguazo-Massacre-20160922-0021.html
