Justice call for tortured, murdered, students

FIVE YEARS  after the kidnapping, torture, and murder of five university students in La Chorrera no one has been brought to justice.

Rumors continue to circulate of a cover up.

On Sunday, September 11 at a  service to mark the anniversary of their deaths, Panama Archbishop José Domingo Ulloa said that it is necessary to know “the truth” about the deaths. Ulloa presided over the commemoration service for  the five young people, who were kidnapped tortured and killed by their captors.

“We need to know the truth,” said Ulloa at the service, attended by a large number of people dressed in white.

“We have gathered to cry unto God, for without justice there is no peace and there is no reconciliation without justice.”

The archbishop reiterated that the courts have failed to try the eight detainees who are the alleged perpetrators of the crimes due to delays in the proceedings.

Ulloa said, however, that the proceedings need to be encouraged in peaceful ways.

The families of the victims: Yessenia Loo Kam, Yong Jian Wu, Samy Zang Chen, Georgina Lee and Joel Lu Wong, have demanded the case move forward.

Before the mass a march was held in which the participants chanted “justicia, justicia, justicia” demanding the defendants be called to trial.