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RI unaware of Peru request for official explanation on in-custody death of trans activist
The Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry said it had not heard of any request for an official report from Peruvian authorities regarding events surrounding the detainment and subsequent death of a Peruvian transgender activist thought to be carrying narcotics in Bali earlier this month.
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Demonstrators hold up signs during a protest to demand justice for Rodrigo Ventosilla, a Peruvian graduate student at Harvard and activist for transgender rights who died in Bali days after being detained for alleged cannabis possession along with his husband, outside Peru's Foreign Ministry building, in Lima, Peru on Aug. 26.
(Reuters/Angel Ponce)
T
he Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry said it had not heard of any request for an official report from Peruvian authorities regarding events surrounding the detainment and subsequent death of a Peruvian transgender activist thought to be carrying narcotics in Bali earlier this month.
Thirty-two-year-old Rodrigo Ventosilla died of multiple organ failure on Aug. 11 at a hospital in Denpasar, Bali, following five days of police detention for alleged possession of marijuana. He arrived in Bali for his honeymoon with husband Sebastian Marallano on Aug. 6.
Ventosilla’s death is mired with speculations of discrimination and police mistreatment.
Peruvian Foreign Affairs Minister Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Mackay said in a press statement on Friday that he had arranged for the Peruvian consulate in Jakarta to request an official report from Indonesian authorities to “clarify the circumstances” behind Ventosilla and Marallano’s detainment and the former’s subsequent death. The request, the statement added, was made following a meeting between the deceased’s mother – Ana Ventosilla – and Mackay, and that the Indonesian Embassy in Peru had also been notified.
Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said on Sunday that his office was not aware of such a request from the Peruvian authorities.
Despite this, Teuku said that his office had provided information to its Peruvian counterparts on the situation surrounding Ventosilla’s death through multiple mechanisms, including a diplomatic note sent to the Peruvian Embassy in Jakarta on Aug. 19.
Teuku also said that the ministry had briefed the embassy in Peru that there had not been any acts of discrimination against Marallano based on his sexual orientation and that his detainment had taken place in line with existing procedures.
