A/HRC/45/CRP.11 court.1015 The officers informed detainees to prepare for court in advance of the scheduled hearings and the detainees would wait for hours before realizing that the transfers would not occur.1016 A SEBIN commissioner told a detainee, “These are orders from above. I just receive the orders” or “The man above hasn’t authorized it”. 1017 483. Friends filed a request with the Human Rights Ombudsperson’s Office to verify the detainee’s physical and psychological condition and ensure due process rights. 1018 Prosecutors visited them in detention but did not perform medical examinations. C2EE01 did not report the treatment she had received for fear of repercussions. 1019 484. The individuals were not permitted visitors in the first few months of detention. One of them was not allowed to meet a lawyer over the course of a year spent in detention. 1020 Officers withheld medication, despite prescriptions from SEBIN doctors. 1021 485. One of the women was also accused of being sexually promiscuous and not behaving as a woman should because she was seen talking to inmates of the opposite sex during visitation hours. Officers removed her visitation rights as punishment. 1022 486. The individuals were released with non-custodial precautionary measures after more than one year of pre-trial detention. At the time of writing, they were still awaiting their preliminary hearing. Findings 487. Based on the facts above, the Mission has reasonable grounds to believe that arbitrary arrest and detention, as well as torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, were committed against C2EE01, C2EE22 and C2EE23. The Mission also has reasonable grounds to believe that sexual violence was committed in the form of threats to rape C2EE01 as part of the torture. 488. SEBIN officers from the Strategic Investigations Directorate, under the leadership of Commissioner Carlos Calderón Chirinos, were involved in the arbitrary arrests and detentions, and in the torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. 489. The Mission also has reasonable grounds to believe that the conditions of detention in El Helicoide facilities, where C2EE01, C2EE22 and C2EE23 were held, amount to a violation of the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. CASE 6: Víctor Navarro, C2EE091023 and eight others 490. Víctor Navarro grew up in a marginalized Caracas neighbourhood in front of El Helicoide. As a teenager, he received support from an educational NGO called the Community Ambassadors Foundation (FEC) that sponsored his travel to the United States to participate in model United Nations competitions.1024 When arrested in January 2018, Mr. Navarro a final year university student in Caracas.1025 491. In 2017, Mr. Navarro won a U.S. State Department scholarship for a summer study programme in the United States. As part of the programme, Mr. Navarro designed a social 1015 1016 1017 1018 1019 1020 1021 1022 1023 1024 1025 Mission Interview C2EE01 in May 2020; Mission Interview C2EE02 in May 2020. Mission Interview C2EE01 and C2EE03 in May 2020. Mission Interview C2EE03 in May 2020. Document C2EE03 on file with the Mission. Mission Interview C2EE03 in May 2020. Mission Interview C2EE01 and C2EE02 in May 2020. Mission Interview C2EE03 in May 2020. Ibid. Name has been changed by the Mission. See Case of Geraldine Chacón and Gregory Hinds (Community Ambassadors Foundation), below. Mission Interview C2EE08, C2EE04 and C2EE05 in May 2020; NotiRSE, Embajadores Comunitarios Galardonados En Modelo De Las Naciones Unidas, 26 March 2013, available at: https://noti-rse.com/noti-rse/comunidades/embajadores-comunitarios-galardonados-en-modelo-de-lasnaciones-unidas/. Mission Interview with Victor Navarro on 29 May 2020. 115