A/HRC/45/CRP.11 attention of the president of the Martial Court, no investigation was carried out into these allegations. II. Cases 373. The Mission selected the following cases for detailed analysis. Selection criteria included substantive, security and other considerations (including, inter alia, availability of witnesses, legal case files, digital information). The Mission also verified a number of additional cases that have remained confidential due to security concerns. These cases are representative of similar situations experienced by many others. The inclusion of these cases and not others does not imply that others have not also suffered violations, nor minimizes the experiences of other victims. A. Cases involving SEBIN CASE 1: Leopoldo López 374. Leopoldo Eduardo López Mendoza is a Venezuelan economist and politician. In 2000, he co-founded the political party Primero Justicia with Henrique Capriles and Julio Borges. He was elected mayor of Chacao municipality in Caracas in July 2000. He is the National Coordinator of another political party, Voluntad Popular, which he founded in 2009. 375. He has been accused in 23 different criminal cases since 2001, 20 of which were closed by the Office of the Public Prosecutor before reaching the trial stage. 844 He has also been subject to administrative decisions, including disqualification from holding public office from 2008 until 2014 on allegations of nepotism and misappropriation of funds, which the Inter-American Court of Human Rights unanimously ruled on 1 September 2011 to be in violation of a number of articles of the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights.845 The ruling had not been implemented by Venezuela at the time of writing. Arrest and Legal Proceedings 376. Leopoldo López promoted the large anti-Government demonstrations that took place on 12 February 2014 in Caracas and was publicly associated with them. He spoke at the beginning of the event in Caracas, accusing the Government of corruption and alleged ties with drug trafficking, while also calling for nonviolence.846 At around 1.30 p.m., Mr. López left the demonstration and called upon demonstrators, unsuccessfully, to do the same.847 377. Around 3.30 p.m., gunshots were fired and two people were killed: Bassil da Costa, a 23-year-old student, and Juan Montoya, coordinator of the “Revolutionary Secretariat of Venezuela”, which grouped several “colectivos” of Caracas. 848 Between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m., the police arrested approximately 30 student demonstrators.849 378. At around 3.25 p.m. on 12 February 2014, National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello announced that he held Mr. López Mendoza and María Corina Machado, a member 844 Interview with Juan Carlos Gutiérrez, Leopoldo López’s lawyer on 3 July 2020. See also opinion of the Working Group on arbitrary detention, A/HRC/WGAD/2014/26. In the other three cases, two are still under investigation, and in one Mr. Lopez was convicted of misappropriation of funds. 845 846 847 848 849 96 Inter-American Court on Human Rights (IACtHR), Leopoldo López vs Venezuela, Case 12663, available at: http://www.corteidh.or.cr/tablas/fichas/lopezmendoza.pdf See Big Time Production C.A., Discurso de líder opositor Leopoldo López el 12F previo a marcha estudiantil en Venezuela, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV1Qj4rf3Cg; See also YouTube Video, Tespis TV Latino Events, Palabras de Leopoldo López el 12 de Febrero En Caracas, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuxbRMrlQ68. Mission interview with Juan Carlos Gutiérrez, Leopoldo López’s lawyer in July 2020. Ibid. Ibid.