Police arrested Salvadoran photojournalist Diego Andrés Rosa Rosales in Seville following an Interpol arrest warrant issued by the government of Nayib Bukele. The informant, aged 25 and who requested asylum in Spain, is detained in a police station in the Andalusian capital while waiting to appear before a National Court to rule on his procedural situation, according to police sources.
Rosa arrived in Spain two months ago, on November 4, and specializes in human rights and politics. He works for Infomedia and Zuma Press, and previously for The Faro. “We are clear that Spain cannot collaborate in the repression of journalists by authoritarian and other illegal dictators,” criticizes Alfonso Bauluz, president of Reporteros Sin Fronteras, who reports that in Argentina the brother of the photoperiodist was arrested.
Rosa has filed an asylum request with Spanish authorities because she believes her life is in danger due to harassment by Bukele’s government. This time he was asked to drop it off at a police station in Seville, but the police arrested him for complying with the Interpol order. The asylum request was presented “due to persecution and the risk of arrest in his own country, due to his activist profile, which is not aligned with his government”, explains Mercedes Alconada, head of legal services for the refugee organization CEAR in the western part of Andalusia.
Rosa’s lawyer, Marta Balmaceda, says of her appearance this morning: “I don’t believe there are any problems, but the matter is free to order a judgment. The asylum application has fallen into the hands of the hearing.” Police sources specify that Group III of Udyco of Seville had arrested the photoperiodist before being made available to the National Public.
The magistrate who will examine her case on Saturday morning will decide whether to green light the extradition request, but given that Rosa is awaiting an asylum request which must be approved or rejected by the Oficina de Asilo y Refugio del Ministerio del Interior, it is foreseeable that she will be released. In these cases, the person claims that their life is in danger and that they remain free, even if their passport is taken away.
The United Nations has condemned the Bukele government’s abuse of red notifications requested from Interpol and used against fugitives from justice, to persecute and harass human rights defenders “a fortiori from their borders”, according to the international organization’s special rapporteurs.
“Interpol facilitates transnational repression without due diligence in the context of people against those who issue notifications,” the journalists denounced a month ago in a press release. Naciones Unidas then intervened on behalf of two Salvadoran human rights lawyers, Ivania Cruz and Rudy Joya, who requested asylum in Spain and against whom the Central American representative also issued international detention warrants.
About The Author
