image source, reparation
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- Author, Drafting
- Author title, BBC News World
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Reading time: 4 minutes
In Peru, three police officers were sentenced to 17 years in prison for torture and sexual abuse against Azul Rojas Marín, a trans woman and LGBTI rights activist. This is the first conviction for sexual discrimination in this country.
This case was also the first in the history of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IDH) to consider a case of torture motivated by discrimination in the region.
Dino Ponce, Luis Quispe and Juan León received the verdict from the National Superior Court of Specialized Criminal Justice for the case that occurred in 2008 in the northern city of Casa Grande.
On February 28 of the same year, Azul Rojas was on her way home when she was stopped by the three agents who demanded her ID. She was later taken to a police station where she was tortured and raped.
Although Azul brought the case to the judicial authorities, the three agents were released without serving their sentences. Then, together with other human rights organizations, she took the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), and the case eventually reached the Inter-American Court of Justice.
image source, Getty Images
In 2020, the IDH ordered the Peruvian judiciary to initiate legal proceedings against the police officers, considering that the detention of Azul Rojas was arbitrary and motivated by discrimination, stating that the incidents amounted to sexual torture.
From then on, the Peruvian Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation and subsequently accused the three police officers of torture and sexual violence, aggravated by cruelty because they were a trans person and a member of the LGBTI community.
In 2022, as part of the reparation measures ordered by the IDH, the Peruvian state held a public recognition of international responsibility and apologized to Azul Rojas Marín and her family for the irreversible harm caused.
“Today’s decision is a very important step for Azul’s recovery and to give effect to his right to justice for what happened,” noted the organization Redress, which accompanied Azul Rojas in the appeal process.
And he added: “It is also a positive sign that Peru is making progress in ensuring that cases like Azul’s do not go unpunished and that torture and other forms of violence against LGBTI people are not tolerated in Peruvian society.”
What the events were like
On February 28, 2008, Azul Rojas was on her way to her home in the town of Casa Grande, in the department of La Libertad, when she was intercepted by the three agents mentioned above.
According to testimony during the court hearings, officers asked her for her identification and, according to Azul, when they saw she was a transgender woman, they arrested her and took her to a police station.
“There she suffered insults and verbal attacks of a discriminatory nature, but also physical attacks with beatings and the use of force to suppress and the use of a police baton to inflict injuries, up to and including sexual assaults, such as:
image source, Getty Images
And the text continues: “Maintaining the deprivation of liberty will also be considered despite his condition resulting from the seizures (severe pain) without any assistance provided.”
Immediately after her release, Azul Rojas filed a complaint with local authorities, but she was again discriminated against because she was a transgender woman.
“A prosecutor told me when I filed the complaint that ‘they will not pay attention to you because you are homosexual; because if you were a normal person they would pay attention to you, but since you have relationships with men they will not pay attention to you,'” denounced Azul Rojas.
The case was actually archived by a Peruvian court.
She decided to contact three human rights organizations: Promsex, the National Human Rights Coordinator (CNDDHH) and Redress Trust so that the case would not go unpunished.
In 2020, both the IACHR and the Inter-American Court investigated the case. There, the Inter-American Court made it clear that it held the Peruvian state directly responsible “for failing to ensure justice or care for the victim, emphasizing that sexual orientation, identity or gender expression should not be a reason for any type of violence.”
Among other things, a new trial, a public apology from the state and psychological support were ordered for Azul.
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