Bolivia Supreme Court orders release of jailed ex-president Jeanine Anez

Deutsche Tageszeitung - Bolivia Supreme Court orders release of jailed ex-president Jeanine Anez

Bolivia Supreme Court orders release of jailed ex-president Jeanine Anez / Photo: © AFP/File

Bolivia's Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the 10-year prison sentence handed to former right-wing president Jeanine Anez in 2022 over an alleged plot to oust her predecessor Evo Morales.

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"The sentence against her... has been annulled," Supreme Court President Romer Saucedo told local media, adding that Anez would be released during the day.

Anez, a former senator, served as interim leader in 2019 after Morales fled the country following mass protests over alleged election fraud during his controversial bid for a fourth term.

Morales, Bolivia's first Indigenous president, claimed he was the victim of a coup after the military called for him to step down following weeks of unrest.

His coup claim was dismissed as fictional by many in Bolivia and abroad given that the army never took power.

Anez was arrested in 2021 after Morales' socialist party returned to power in 2020.

She was convicted of illegally assuming the presidency.

Saucedo said Anez should have been tried by a special court in charge of trying crimes by lawmakers in the course of their duties and not by the criminal justice system.

He said that Anez's rights had been violated.

Anez, 58, did not immediately react on social media but on Tuesday had posted on the X that she would "never regret having served my country when it needed me."

(Y.Leyard--DTZ)

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