AP News, January 12th, 2007
Puerto Rico's Justice Department asked a U.S. appeals court on Thursday to force the FBI to release information about its two raids against militant independence advocates in the U.S. Caribbean territory.
Puerto Rico's solicitor general, Salvador Antonetti Stutts, said the three-judge panel in Boston should order the release of all documents requested about the September 2005 shooting death of militant independence leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios and a February 2006 raid against independence activists in suburban San Juan.
Puerto Rico's Justice Secretary Roberto Sanchez Ramos alleged that bureau officials have stonewalled his investigations into the raids and he has asked Congress to pressure the agency to cooperate. He said the FBI has refused to disclose the identities of the agents who participated.
In September, U.S. District Court Judge Jose Fuste ruled against the territory's Justice Department, saying the FBI did not have to share information it deemed sensitive.
A U.S. Justice Department investigation concluded that agents were justified in shooting to death Ojeda Rios after he initially opened fire during an attempt to arrest the activist at his home in the island's west, the department's Office of the Inspector General said in an August 2006 report.
Witnesses and his widow allege that the FBI shot Ojeda Rios and let him bleed to death.
During a February raid targeting independence militants just outside the island's capital, agents used pepper spray on reporters and protesters.
The information on the raids could be shared under a confidentiality order if the agency was concerned about public disclosure, Antonetti said. If that was not possible, the panel must send the case back to Puerto Rico's district court, which should force the FBI to say why the information could not be released, he said.
"The commonwealth strongly believes that these are the only courses of action which can serve to adequately protect the commonwealth's interests," Antonetti wrote in his brief.
The FBI and the U.S. Justice Department's civil division in Washington declined to comment on the case.
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Associated Press Writer David McFadden contributed to this report.
