MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Topolansky under investigation for false testimony in crimes against humanity cases

Topolansky linked her comments to cases in Argentina and offered more information to the collective if they deemed it necessary

The former vice-president of Uruguay, Lucía Topolansky, will be investigated by prosecutor Eliana Travers after her statements about alleged false testimonies in cases of crimes against humanity during the civil-military dictatorship in Uruguay. Topolansky's comments, made in the book “Los indomables” by journalist Pablo Cohen, generated widespread controversy, as she suggested that some statements in these cases would have been fabricated.

“People lie in the statements. A colleague of ours was told: 'I lied, I said this and that, let's put so-and-so in jail'. He answered: 'I'm not going to say it'. Then they accuse you of being a traitor and say that the Tupamaros did not say anything,'” she said in the book. Faced with the public reaction, Topolansky acknowledged in a letter addressed to the group Mothers and Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared that it was “a mistake” to talk about these cases without reviewing the text before its publication, although she said she cannot retract it. “I knew what I said,” she said.

The collective, which made the letter public, strongly questioned his statements. “They call into question a process of years of seeking and building justice,” they said, noting that they undermine the legitimacy of the convictions and revictimize those who denounced abuses.

Topolansky linked her comments to cases in Argentina and offered more information to the collective if they deemed it necessary. However, the collective reiterated its confidence in the Justice system and in the victims, noting that the vast majority of the testimonies reflect painful truths.

Prosecutor Travers will investigate the case under the new randomized case assignment system and, once the judicial fair is over, Topolansky could be summoned for questioning, with the right not to testify, not to tell the truth and to have legal representation.

Former President José 'Pepe' Mujica, Topolansky's husband, backed up her words in subsequent interviews. “These things are known to us. I am not going to say that it was generalized, but I know there were cases,” he said, although he avoided going into details.