This summer during the 62nd Session of UN Human Rights Council Judges for Judges together with IBAHRI and Lawyers for Lawyers delivered a joint oral statement during the ID on the situation of human rights in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, condemning the continued absence of genuine transitional justice and accountability for past state crimes.[1] The statement welcomed the Amnesty Law and prisoner releases but highlighted the lack of transparency in its application. It called for structural judicial reform, compliance with international standards in the filling of new judicial vacancies for the Supreme Tribunal, the release of all arbitrarily detained persons and full OHCHR access to the country. We also called attention to the case of Judge Maria Afiuni.
Judges for Judges has been following the case of Venezuelan judge Maria Afiuni for more than 16 years now.[2 Judge Afiuni was on 10 December 2009 arbitrarily arrested, detained and subjected to an unfair trial by express order of then-President Hugo Chávez. Her case was not considered in the recent Amnesty Law. Despite having (more than) served the time associated with the sentence imposed upon her, she is still stripped of her civil rights.[3]
Judge Afiuni was arrested and detained in 2009 on allegations of taking bribes for granting conditional release – in accordance with Opinion No. 10/2009 issued by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention – to banker Eligio Cedeno.
The detention of Jude Afiuni was used to intimidate Venezuelan judges. She was held in prison for 14 months since December 2009, transferred to house arrest in 2011 and granted conditional releasein 2013 under strict conditions.
On 21 March 2019 a five year prison sentence was handed down against Judge Afiuni for ‘corrupción espiritual’ – an alleged offence that does not appear in the country’s criminal legislation – in the absence of evidence of corruption, as it could not be established that she received any money, favour or gain from which she would have benefitted.
Despite international condemnation of this sentencing (by the UN, the ICJ and the IBA), on 18 October 2019 the conviction for corruption and the sentence of 5 years imprisonment was confirmed by the Court of Appeal.
On 4 November 2020 the Tribunal Supremo de Justicia (Supreme Tribunal of Justice) dismissed the appeal, the five-year prison sentence for Judge María Afiuni was thereby affirmed.
In the 2024 Report of the independent international fact-finding mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela it was stated: “As the mission has continued to document, the Supreme Court of Justice, the governing body of the judiciary, and judicial actors in general, operated with a lack of independence and were subject to interference by the executive.[4]
In June 2026 Judge Afiuni’s brother Nelson and her lawyer Thelma Fernandez wrote in a statement[5] that was well picked up by (social) media: (i) that it has been 16 years since the arbitrary detention of Judge Afiuni; (ii) that she more than served the sentence imposed on her for a crime that does not exist in Venezuelan criminal law; (iii) that her situation remains in a legal limbo that prevents her from fully recovering her rights; (iv) that her case was excluded from the application of the Amnesty Law and (v) that closing her case would send a message in favor of judicial independence, human dignity and that no judge will ever again be persecuted for applying the law.
You can also find here a recent article by Afiuni’s lawyer Thelma Fernández on the case of Judge Maria Afiuni as an emblematic symbol of the destruction of judicial independence in Venezuela: Afiuni and the sentence that never ends
Judges for Judges remains committed to closely monitoring Maria Afiuni’s case.
Click here to download the document AFIUNI AND THE SENTENCE THAT NEVER ENDS.
[1] SIXTEEN YEARS OF INJUSTICE AGAINST JUDGE MARÍA LOURDES AFIUNI MORA – Venezuela Alert
[3] See for a more detailed timeline: Timeline of the case of María Lourdes Afiuni │ Access to Justice
[4] At present, the restrictions imposed on Judge Afiuni include a prohibition on leaving the country and a prohibition on publicly speaking about her case, among other limitations which, although not always clearly defined in the case file as autonomous measures, have a direct impact on her daily life and the exercise of her fundamental rights. These include, inter alia, the prohibition to carry out certain legal procedures, the prohibition to enter the Executive Directorate of the Judiciary, and the prohibition to perform formalities before public registries and notaries, among others.
[5] See the report A/HRC/57/57, para 110. The lack of independence of the judicial system was analysed by the UN mission in A/HRC/48/69, paras. 14–56.