Jailed politician murdered, opposition says
CARACAS: Venezuela’s government said yesterday a jailed opposition politician killed himself by jumping from the 10th floor of the state intelligence agency headquarters (Sebin), where he was being held, but his party said he was murdered by the government.
Municipal lawmaker Fernando Alban (56) was jailed on Saturday for alleged involvement in the explosion of two drones during a military parade in August led by President Nicolas Maduro, Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said.
‘‘At the moment he was going to be transported to court, while he was in the Sebin waiting room, he jumped from the window of the building and fell, causing his death,’’ Reverol tweeted.
That account differed from that of chief prosecutor Tarek Saab, who said Alban had asked to use a bathroom and jumped from there.
The opposition First Justice party, for which Alban was a Caracas municipal councillor, said he was murdered.
Its national coordinator, Julio Borges, said Alban’s lifeless body was thrown from the Sebin’s headquarters on Caracas’ Plaza Venezuela. He did not provide any evidence or say what led him to believe Alban was killed.
The party said Alban’s arrest was owing to statements he made at recent United Nations meetings in New York City denouncing humans rights violations in Venezuela.
The government had previously given no reason for his arrest. Yesterday, Reverol said Alban had also been investigated for ‘‘destabilising activities directed from abroad.’’
Alban’s assistant, Mileidy Blanco, said she had begged him to leave Venezuela with his family.
‘‘And he didn’t do it. He loved the country too much,’’ she said.
The opposition and rights groups have said Maduro’s administration is holding hundreds of political prisoners on trumpedup charges intended to stifle dissent. The United Nations has said detainees are often subjected to ill treatment, including some documented cases that amount to torture.
The government denies it is detaining people as political prisoners.
Alban’s lawyer, Joel Garcia, told reporters that Alban told him on Monday he had been interrogated but not tortured.
The Organisation of American States condemned Alban’s death.
‘‘Direct responsibility of a regime that tortures and murders. This criminal dictatorship must go now from Venezuela,’’ OAS Secretarygeneral Luis Almagro tweeted.