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By Esteban Marchand, from Lima

Yefri Peña Tuanama is a 41-year-old trans woman who has been seeking justice for a decade. In 2007, an attempt was made on her life, and she was tortured while two police officers watched without helping her. Last week, prosecutor Marcelita Gutiérrez of the Second Supraprovincial Criminal Prosecutor's Office of Lima dismissed her complaint.

“We hope that the superior officer will review Prosecutor Marcelita Gutiérrez’s decision and reopen the investigation. Furthermore, as a prosecutor, Marcelita Gutiérrez has failed in her duty to diligently conduct the investigation for two main reasons: the repeated extension of the investigation beyond the established timeframe, and, on the other hand, filing charges for a crime that will necessarily expire next year,” Gabriela Oporto, Promsex’s lawyer and the victim’s representative, told Presentes. Yefri, still suffering from post-traumatic stress, is not giving interviews to the press.

“Solve your problem elsewhere”

Yefri worked as a promoter for the Ministry of Health (MINSA), providing education to transgender women involved in prostitution. In the early morning of October 28, 2007, she was in the Ate district waiting for a taxi to take her home when five unidentified men brutally attacked her. Some of the words Yefri remembered were: “faggot,” and “homosexuals like you shouldn’t exist.”

Yefri just screamed and covered his face. One of his attackers cut his cheek with a razor blade. Taking advantage of a moment of inattention, he managed to escape and went to a Peruvian National Police (PNP) checkpoint. There were two police officers there:

His response, according to the statement, was: “Solve your problem elsewhere, we are not going to help you.”

"Leave her alone, you've already killed her"

Desperate, Yefri ran to a bar for refuge, but her attackers followed her and dragged her out by her hair. They threw her to the floor and slashed her back and face with broken glass bottles. There, she tried to play dead until she heard one of them say, “Leave her alone, you’ve already killed her.”

Yefri moved too soon, and one of the attackers returned and cut his lip deeply. All of this happened in front of the police officers.

Yefri was rescued by a neighborhood watch patrol, who took her to a hospital in the Ate district. But even at the health center, Yefri had to clean her wounds herself, which required 180 stitches. She was discharged the next day, but a week later she went into a coma, having lost too much blood. She remained in a coma for a month.

The long road to justice

Despite the trauma she suffered from this extreme violence, Yefri wanted justice. After emerging from her coma in November 2007, she and the Center for the Promotion and Defense of Sexual and Reproductive Rights (Promsex) filed a complaint for abuse of authority against the two officers who refused to help her. Her attackers were never identified due to the inaction of the Peruvian National Police (PNP).

On March 29, 2010, history was made when the Second Criminal Court of Chosica sentenced the officers to four years of suspended imprisonment, the maximum penalty for the crime of unjustified omission or delay of police support to the detriment of the State. They were also ordered to pay four thousand soles in civil damages to the State.

In the process, Yefri was only considered as a witness to the event, not as a victim, leaving the violation of rights for which the police were responsible unpunished.

How the case proceeded

In March 2015, Promsex and the National Human Rights Coordinator (CNDDHH) filed a complaint against the police officers before the Second Supraprovincial Criminal Prosecutor's Office of Lima for the crime against humanity in the form of torture against Yefri Peña Tuanama.

This month, prosecutor Marcelita Gutiérrez, after three years, decided not to pursue the torture case and to close the complaint. According to the prosecutor, this only constitutes serious bodily harm resulting from omission.

If the investigation were reopened and the events were classified as 'serious injuries' and not as 'torture', the legal process would not end before October 2019, which is when this crime would expire.

[READ ALSO: #HateCrimes2017 Peru: main violence against LGBTIQ+, from the State]

“It is careless, even negligent, to file charges for a crime one year before the extraordinary statute of limitations expires,” Oporto told Presentes.

When asked if they expect to take this case to international bodies, Oporto indicated that they are evaluating it but "it is a requirement to access the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that the processes at the internal level be completed"

The lawyer points out that they have testimonies from the security guards of Ate Vitarte who took Yefri to the hospital and that "they indicate how the accused police officers could see what was happening and still did nothing."