LIMA, June 16 – the court hearing that was to rule on the Italian Passionist missionary Father Mario Bartolini has been postponed until next month in Peru’, Father Mario Bartolini has been accused of instigating the Indians of the Amazon to rebel against the authorities.
The news service ANSA said that the reason given for the delay until July was because of the “excessive workload” of the presiding judge, Julio Aquino, of the city of Yurimaguas (about 800 km from Lima).
The magistrate has been ‘under pressure from the Peruvian government’. Father Bartolini is 72 years old and, for more than thirty years, has lived alongside the Indians of the Peruvian Amazon.
The prosecutor is asking that the missionary be sentenced to eleven years in prison. By way of explanation Father Bartolini said ”I just did what I had to do, and that means ‘to defend our people, especially the most humble’. ‘It is up to us to stand up for the people, especially when their basic rights are not recognized’ he explained. He will appeal if there is an adverse outcome from the court of Yurimaguas. The land of the indigenous people among whom Father Mario and the Passionists live and work has been at risk because of the government making it available to corporations.
