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Public defender cries violation of Vienna Convention
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Posted on Aug 04 1999
Assistant Public Defender Robert Torres is asking the Superior Court to disregard the Department of Public Safety’s voice-taped interview with a man charged with aggravated assault, saying such piece of evidence was obtained improperly.
The taped interview with Sergio Inabangan is expected to be presented by prosecutors in a trial scheduled for Dec. 2.
The interview, which was conducted allegedly without the presence of a legal counsel for the defendant, contains Inabagan’s self-incriminating statements and admissions to the offense which he was charged with.
Torres has filed a motion to suppress the defendant’s statements, charging that investigators Eddie Chen and Jesus Cepeda interrogated Inabangan without properly advising him of his rights to get legal assistance from a counsel and consular officers.
Inabanagan, a Filipino national whose native language is Tagalog, was arrested on July 12, 1998 in connection with a stabbing incident in San Vicente.
Torres said that although the two investigators read the Miranda rights to Inabangan, there was no interpreter around during the interrogation to translate it in Tagalog.
Torres also said the investigators did not notify the Philippine Consulate while Inabagan was in detention for 17 hours.
The investigators’ failure to do so, Torres added, constitutes a violation of the Vienna Convention, a 1969 treaty that deals with consular relations among signatory countries.
Under the treaty, an individual has the right to get consular assistance after his arrest.
The treaty also provides that the consular office should be informed accordingly when a foreign citizen is in the custody of authorities of the host country.
“The benefit to DPS gained from their violation of the Vienna Convention is that the delay in the notice afforded DPS to detain a foreign national for an extended period of time and subject him to interrogation while he remained without the benefit of a counsel,” Torres’ motion said. (MCM)
