Argentina's Milagro Sala Acquitted of All Criminal Charges

Indigenous Argentine activist Milagro Sala has been acquitted of criminal charges involving alleged threats against law enforcement in the country's Jujuy province, Izquierda Diario reported.

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Argentina's Oral Court No. 2 reportedly absolved the social leader of all charges due to a lack of merit in the submitted evidence.

The news comes just a day after the Supreme Court agreed to a ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which demanded the sentence be served in her habitual residence in the Cuyaya neighborhood and not in the El Carmen building, which is unfit for human habitation.

"Despite the years in which I have been harassed in this case, it has been shown that I am really innocent," Sala said while being removed from the hearing by the Prison Service of the province of Jujuy, in northern Argentina.

Sala is the leader of the Tupac Amaru Neighbourhood Organization, which has spearheaded numerous protests against the administration of President Mauricio Macri.

For the past 692 days, she has been arbitrarily detained while consecutive cases have been created and complaints filed against her, in a bid to prolong the effects of pre-trial detention, Pressenza reports.

Her lawyer, Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta, said after Thursday's ruling: "The judges acquitted Sala based on the principle of doubt: that's all we know. We will have to see if the prosecuting parties appeal.

"There are moments when the obvious lies are broken, the fakes are exposed and the curtain falls and there is no more room to dictate a sentence.

"The Court made it known to the judges that they must comply immediately and fully with the Human Rights Court's ruling, and this means that there is no longer any margin, there is no excuse to keep Milagro in prison for one more minute."

The case against Sala was launched more than three years ago by the son of now-governor Gerardo Morales. Charges were first brought in December 2016, when was accused of threatening two policemen by phone in the Alto Ventadero neighborhood.

"We are going to eliminate and destroy every accusation against Milagro," said Luis Paz, another of Sala’s defense lawyers. "Today it has been demonstrated that the armed forces of the Executive Branch have limits."