“Your human rights,” Eliane Karp required. “They are violating their human rights.” Five and a quarter hours after the start of the hearing, Alejandro Toledo – through his lawyer Graham Archer – had to interrupt the exposure of the United States Government. I had to go to the bathroom.
Clenching his fists, Karp stood up. He turned, in the direction of the guards. He grabbed the bar. Toledo returned from recess when she still mumbled; He gave her a wink and a half smile. It did not work.
“Get him down,” he articulated Alejandro Toledo with the lips, while gesturing with the hand. “It’s crap,” Karp continued. “There are no human rights in this country.”
-Loneliness-
The day was long and, to the impatience of the parties, no decision at the end. For six and a half hours, the defense of Toledo and the US prosecutor’s office. they presented testimonies and evidence to determine where to have the former president during the extradition process that follows.
Last October, federal judge Vince Chhabria had determined that Toledo could not continue in solitary confinement in Santa Rita prison. If not, it would have to be released on bail. Almost immediately after being transferred to Maguire, in San Mateo County, Toledo shared a larger space until two weeks ago, and could receive new companions sooner or later. For defense, being alone in a bigger place is not much better. So have free circulation in a TV room and almost unrestricted use of the phone.
“The conditions of confinement, by their age and their state of health, constitute an extraordinary condition for their release,” said Archer.
Perhaps because of the walk to San Francisco, or because of the spaciousness of the room, compared to his cell, Toledo seemed happy. He wore short hair, as in his president years, and an orange shirt over the usual red uniform. Bent over and eyelids tired, but smiling and lively when talking to Archer and looking at the gallery.
Difficult to assess the mood of a prisoner in his minutes of freedom. Therefore, the defense summoned social psychologist Craig Haney, an expert on the impact of solitary confinement. Haney, who interviewed Toledo on January 16 and 28, determined that Toledo is “under a severe form of social isolation” that causes depression, anxiety, cognitive impairment and full suffering. “I have great concern for his well-being, even between the two dates we talked I saw him deteriorate,” he explained.
For the psychologist, the medication he receives for anxiety and depression does not relieve him, as the change from Santa Rita to Maguire did not relieve him. Between the symptoms he has noticed trembling in the hands and lips, forgetfulness and confusion when speaking. “Solo I’m alone, I’m alone,” he repeated, and told me he felt at the end of the line, “he added. “Prison causes tension, but isolation doubles it.”
Professor Martin Carnoy, an old friend and colleague of the years at Stanford, was called to testify about his share of the bond, but also responded for his health. Carnoy, who sponsored the return of Toledo to his alma mater after the 2016 election, advised the former president in his next book that, with Toledo in jail, had to end up together, by phone. “I also received notes passed by you [Archer], which were not nearly as consistent as all previous work had been, ”Carnoy said.
Carnoy, like Karp, had also been interviewed by Haney for evaluation. “Why not jail staff?” Asked prosecutor Elise LaPunzina.
-The surprise-
The prosecutor took a while discussing with Haney the conditions of Maguire that made him think of a situation of isolation. Did the windows have an outside view? Did the television have cable? Were not telephone calls a kind of social contact?
Snorting at such questions, Karp preferred the cell phone. The cover of the newspaper “Expreso”, which entitled with the request to remove prosecutors Rafael Vela and José Domingo Pérez from the Lava Jato special team, called his attention.
On the other side of the room, LaPunzina had news for the psychologist. It consisted of a medical report that on January 20 Toledo visited the psychiatrist in Maguire. “Calm, cooperative and well-groomed,” he said he is neither anxious nor depressed when he takes his medicines. In addition, LaPunzina had a report written by an unnamed member of the prison staff, which indicated that Toledo “changes his behavior when he has visits like yours, gets hunched over and sad, in a way that he is not in the day to day”.
“Have you seen prisoners changing their presentation according to who sees them?” Asked LaPunzina. Haney had no answer. Karp just snorted.
Prosecution witnesses – other sergeants and jail officers – said less than those revelations. For the rest, Archer insisted that Toledo should not remain in prison. Chhabria suggested that the current conditions for protected custody be evaluated, with greater social interaction but no almost exclusive telephone. LaPunzina, meanwhile, argued that if Toledo lied in his initial affidavit, as Judge Hixson has determined, he could have done so with Haney.
The decision on detention, as trapped as the extradition process, now requires further evidence: the preliminary ruling that clarifies, once and for all, the risk of escape. Only then can you begin the way back to Peru.
-Data-
1. Toledo is currently in a 3 x 3.5 meter cell, the largest in the Maguire correctional, according to Sergeant James Gilletti. In addition, you have exclusive access to a larger living room, with TV, DVD and telephone, which you used to share with another inmate.
2. His former partner, a police accused of rape, was sentenced two weeks ago, and transferred to another prison. According to Haney, it was incompatible with Toledo, and one more reason for tension.
3. Toledo has recess every day from 3:30 to 5 p.m. During this time, you can access – always alone – the other two common areas in the Maguire protected housing unit. One of them has access to the outdoors.
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