COFADEH Says Protection Needed for Tortured Honduran Journalist, Cesar Silva

 CENTRAL AMERICA  –  Sunday 03 January 2010
 

Protection for Honduran Journalist Requested

TEGUCIGALPA – The Committee of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared in Honduras asked protection for independent journalist Cesar Silva, kidnapped and tortured for 24 hours in an illegal prison.

Three armed man captured Silva on Dec 28 when travelling by taxi through the capital and took him to an unknown place in which he was beaten and submitted to severe interrogations. ¿I only had time to tell the taxi driver that I am journalist and member of the resistance, ¿ said the journalist.

Silva added that they kidnappers constantly asked him about the groups he was working for, as well as, the purpose of the videos and photos he has been taking, which according to them, are causing lots of damage.

Twenty-four hours after the kidnapping, Silva was left in El Chile neighbourhood, of this capital, by his captors.

According to El Libertador daily, the journalist was detained at a military unit in southern Honduras, where he was taken by Armed Forces intelligence members. This action was denied by Army spokesman Ramiro Archaga.

The coordinator of the Committee of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared in Honduras, Bertha Oliva, said that they are giving protection to Silva, and informed that they demanded preventive measures to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission in order to save the life of the journalist.