Inmates linked to Robert Serra case released after completing their sentences

Four people convicted in the case of the murder of Robert Serra, a former Chavista lawmaker in Venezuela's National Assembly, have been released after completing their prison sentences.

The people freed were Erick Ricardo Romero Arteaga, Raidel Jesús Espinoza Flores, Wuadid Pacheco Pacheco and Danny Enrique Salinas Quevedo. They had been sentenced as “nonessential accomplices” in the killing of Serra, a spokesman for the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, who was murdered inside his home in Caracas on October 1, 2014, at the age of 27. Serra's partner, María Herrera Sequera, was also killed that day.

Reporter Jesús Medina Ezaine first publicized the releases on social media, saying some of those involved had received sentences of nine years and six months and had already completed them several years earlier. Journalist Maryorín Méndez later confirmed the information and published the full names of those released.

Those described as the material perpetrators, Edwin José Torres Camacho and Carlos Enrique García Martínez, both former police officers, remain behind bars alongside co-perpetrators Jaime Padilla and Leiver Padilla Mendoza. Yumelis Elena Meregote Pereira and Neira Palomino Anaya have also not been released.

Serra was elected to the National Assembly in 2010 at age 23, becoming the youngest legislator in Venezuela's history. He represented the area of the capital where he was later killed and became one of the most visible defenders of the so-called Bolivarian Revolution.

“

Inmates who were linked to the murder case of Robert Serra were released. Some had been sentenced to nine years and six months in prison and had completed their sentences several years ago. Today they were set free.