18
that the helicopters were carrying out training flights; however, helicopters had
never before flown over the factory.
Documents exist that refer to the Government’s concern about the existence of
investigative journalism teams outside its control. Those concerning the Octavio II,
IV, V and XIII plans refer to several television channels. The names of journalists
from the Contrapunto program appear in them and Mr. Ivcher was mentioned as “a
person who was extremely dangerous for national security.”
The Octavio Plan was initiated on May 23, 1997, and affected the witness’s
reputation, owing to publications in magazines that had been bankrupt and began to
use State money. The newspaper, El Mañanero informed that he was an Israeli, not
a Peruvian.
On July 13, 1997, the same day that Contrapunto gave information about 197
recordings of telephone conversations of journalists, politicians and, in particular, the
former presidential candidate, Javier Pérez de Cuellar, the official gazette, El
Peruano, published the resolution that took away his nationality. He was never
notified of this, or given the opportunity to be represented by a lawyer.
There are approximately 20 or 30 lawsuits against him, and he, his wife, Neomy
Even de Ivcher (hereinafter “Mrs. Ivcher” or “Mr. Ivcher’s wife”), and his daughter,
Michal, are liable to a possible total of over 110 years of prison. His wife won a civil
suit that allowed her to convene the shareholders on November 8, 1998, and
organize the board of Compañía Latinoamericana de Radiodifusión S.A. (hereinafter
“the Company”); however, the following day, she was criminally charged with
misrepresentation. He has not been allowed to appoint lawyers for his defense in
any of the proceedings against him; to the contrary, he has been assigned lawyers
de oficio.
The Productos Paraíso del Perú factory has also been harassed, so that some of the
personnel, particularly the managers, are in hiding in Peru or exiled in the United
States. Its clients have also been harassed so that they would denounce him, and a
criminal proceeding was filed against one of them who refused to sign the charge;
this could involve a conviction of 10 or 12 years. Rosario Lam, Imports Manager of
Productos Paraíso del Perú, was imprisoned for 271 days to try and force her to file a
complaint against him. “[T]wo judgments […] in the same case” were delivered
against Julio Sotelo, the Channel’s former General Manager and the only person
holding his power of attorney in Peru, “one sentencing him [to] four years [and the
other to] four years conditionally”. Like Rosario Lam, they were not allowed to sleep
at night while they were in prison; it was a “psychological war”. They tried to stop
Emilio Rodríguez Larraín, his wife and daughter’s lawyer, through intimidation and he
now risked six years in prison.
Lastly, on July 11, 1997, the newspaper Expreso published a declaration of Army
General Guido Guevara Guerra, President of the Supreme Council of Military Justice,
in which he stated that Mr. Ivcher could lose his Peruvian nationality because he had
endangered national security by broadcasting information that discredited the Army.
The following September 19, they took the channel away from.
c)
Testimony of Fernando Viaña Villa, Press Director General of
Channel 2, when Baruch Ivcher Bronstein was Chairman of the Board