Bolivia government using judiciary to go after ex-leader Morales, report says

SANTIAGO, (Reuters) - Bolivia’s interim government has used the justice system to carry out a political attack against ex-president Evo Morales and his allies, a Human Rights Watch report said yesterday, an allegation the conservative administration rejected.

The government, led by President Jeanine Anez, took over late last year after a contentious general election sparked widespread protests that eventually forced longtime leftist leader Morales to resign.

The HRW report said terrorism charges against Morales over deadly unrest after he fled the country last November appeared to be “politically motivated”. It added Morales had used the judiciary in a similar way during his near 14-year rule.

Tensions have been simmering in the Andean nation as it heads for a delayed re-run of that election on Oct. 18. Anez and others will run against the current frontrunner, a candidate from Morales’ socialist party.

The government’s charges against Morales related to a single phone call days after he left Bolivia in which he urged a supporter to “fight” the interim government, HRW said, and the 20-year prison term sought for the alleged offence was “wholly disproportionate.”

Terrorism charges brought against Morales’s former lawyer and chief of staff were based on phone contact she had with him, it added, while a Morales supporter was charged with sedition for describing the new government as “dictatorial.”