Citizens Alliance counters prison chiefs allegations

THE CITIZENS Alliance for Justice and its executive director, Magaly Castillo, said they have never received or requested funds for prison issues since the body’s founding in 2000.
Castillo’s statements came Sunday, June 29 after, the director of the national prison system, Angel Calderon, said in a La Prensa interview that “Magaly Castillo does not defend any accused. Just wanders and seeks funds that are not invested in the system.”
Said Castillo: “Mr. Angel Calderon, director of the Prison System, not only denied human rights organizations access to Panamanian prisons, but now attacks them.
“We say categorically that the Citizens Alliance for Justice and Magaly Castillo never received or requested funds for prison issues ever since its existence in 2000,” said Castillo.
“We have never received a dime to track the reality of Panamanian prisons I wish there was funding for Panamanian human rights organizations monitoring and providing legal and humanitarian assistance to detainees in prisons,” she said.
“What if we have done is give notes to Mr. Calderón asking permission to enter the prisons, and we have attended two hearings before the Commission to denounce the prison situation in the country,” she said.
“We have sent reports to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Committee against Torture, as a result of complaints that we have received for violations of human rights in the prison system.”.