A/HRC/45/CRP.11 160. With respect to prosecutors, while access to career is in principle via public examination,374 the overwhelming majority of them are also appointed on a temporary basis.375 The career stability of public prosecutors has been further eroded since the 2017 appointment of Tarek William Saab as the new Attorney General by the National Constituent Assembly. In September 2018, Mr. Saab issued a resolution restructuring the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which stated that prosecutors are in “positions of trust” and can be named and removed at will, thus removing prosecutorial job security. 376 161. Some judges and prosecutors have been subjected to criminal persecution following decisions they have taken. Judge María Lourdes Afiuni, for example, 377 was arbitrarily detained in 2009, after she had ordered the conditional release of an individual whose detention had been deemed arbitrary by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.378 In March 2019, the judge was convicted for “spiritual corruption,” 379 a crime that is not typified under Venezuelan law, which was confirmed on appeal in October 2019.380 Her case has created an atmosphere of fear amongst judges, commonly known as the “Afiuni effect”. 162. Judges and lawyers have also testified that they have been improperly pressured. Franklin Nieves, public prosecutor in the case of Leopoldo López, has spoken publicly that the trial against Mr. López was a sham and that he remained silent out of fear and because of the pressure exerted by his superiors.381 He said that President Maduro and Diosdado Cabello382 give orders directly to the Attorney General about what cases to pursue, noting that the judiciary “kneels” before the executive, which “runs absolutely everything”. 383 The judge in that case, Ralenis Tovar, has declared that when signing the arrest warrant for Leopoldo López, she was sitting before a large number of officials of the state intelligence services and the Bolivarian National Guard and four national prosecutors, and she was threatened with becoming the “next Judge Afiuni”.384 163. Since 2017, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has seen its independence progressively limited by decisions of the Supreme Court.385 In July 2017, the Supreme Court issued a decision allowing judges to order the Public Prosecutor’s Office to continue investigations, 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 42 Article 93 of the 2007 Organic Law on the Public Prosecutor’s Office, available at: http://www.derechos.org.ve/pw/wp-content/uploads/Ley-Org%C3%A1nica-del-MinisterioP%C3%BAblico.pdf. According to the NGO Acceso a la Justicia, as of 2017 only approximately 0.2 per cent of prosecutors had security of tenure. See https://www.accesoalajusticia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/InformeEl-ministerio-Pu%CC%81blico-en-Venezuela.-Su-actuacio%CC%81n-y-percepcio%CC%81nciudadana.pdf. Resolution No. 2703 of 13 September 2018, published in the Official Gazette No. 41.482 of 14 September 2018, available at: https://www.ghm.com.ve/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/41482.pdf. See YouTube Video, Nuestra Tele Internacional, Una vez más difieren el juicio contra jueza María Lourdes Afiuni, 22 January 2015, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUD7aCVukRM. See United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Opinion No. 20/2010; Human Rights Committee, Communication No. 1940/2010. See https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24405&LangID=E. See Acceso a la Justicia, Cronología del caso de María Lourdes Afiuni, 30 October 2018, available at: https://www.accesoalajusticia.org/cronologia-maria-lourdes-afiuni/. See La Patilla, Entrevista completa Franklin Nieves Conclusiones 27/10/2015, 28 October 2015, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4-t6NGl1Ec. See also https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-34656748. Former president of the National Assembly and then president of the National Constituent Assembly. YouTube Video, La Patilla, Entrevista completa Franklin Nieves Conclusiones 27/10/2015, 28 October 2015, minute 2:15, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPsTNZn2Ldo&t=726s. Testimony of Ralenis Tovar at the Hearing of the OAS General Secretariat to analyse the possible commission of crimes against humanity in Venezuela, 16 October 2017, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca5zYBQYcVE. For a discussion, see Acceso a la Justicia, Informe sobre el Desempeño del Ministerio Publico (20002018), available at: https://www.accesoalajusticia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Informe-sobre-eldesempe%C3%B1o-del-Ministerio-P%C3%BAblico-2000-2018.pdf