Five members of the Aragua Train who were serving preventive detention left the High Security Prison when their precautionary measures were reduced to house arrest, monthly signature and national roots.
The decision was resolved on Monday by the judge of the Guarantee Court of Los Vilos (Coquimbo Region) Daniella Pinto, after the defense of the accused offered to pay a bond of five million pesos for each in exchange for the adoption of the indicated measures.
The resolution was given within the framework of a hearing to review the precautionary measures of seven defendants – detained at the end of 2023 – for aggravated kidnapping, robbery with intimidation and illicit association, crimes that were committed in the regions of Coquimbo and Valparaíso.
JUDGE BLAMED THE PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE
In this context, the judge granted the reduction arguing that the Prosecutor’s Office did not provide further information regarding the dangerousness of the subjects, mostly Venezuelans.
To record this situation, the judge even sent a complaint to the chief prosecutor of Los Vilos, Patricio Jory, saying that The assistant prosecutor Luis Soto Pérez, who was present at the hearing, did not “fully” know the background of the case.
“This seems unpresentable to me. Unpresentablebecause we are talking about one of the most emblematic cases that the Los Vilos Local Prosecutor’s Office has, and you are making allegations of this type,” the judge lashed out when addressing the representative of the prosecuting entity.
“(You) have to take care of questions of law. You cannot tell me: ‘I say that everything about the defense is insufficient, I believe that everything remains the same and, therefore, maintain (the precautionary ones),’ because that It means that, to solve it, I have to blindly trust you, and that cannot be, because I am impartial“added the judge.
COURT OF APPEALS REVERSED DECISION
After the ruling of the Guarantee Court, the pursuing entity filed an appeal to the Court of Appeals of La Serenawhich on Wednesday afternoon revoked the change in the controversial precautionary measure.
“Both the Public Ministry and some of the defenders present on the stand were responsive in pointing out that the background information available at the time of imposing the precautionary measure in due course they have not changedto which is added the circumstance that was not contributed -by none of the lawyers who attended- any element of judgment that would allow us to understand a modification of the circumstances that would justify changing the precautionary measure originally imposed, as the judge a quo did“said the Court.
“In other words, We find ourselves in a scenario identical to that which motivated, at the time, the imposition of the precautionary measure of preventive detention. for each of the defendants,” the appeal court emphasized.
In parallel, the Public Ministry announced an internal administrative investigationfollowing the letter of the Guarantee Judge, and to determine why your representative did not immediately and verbally appeal in the audience.
According to T13the five defendants managed to leave prison, before the resolution of the Court of La Serena, and until now remain fugitives.
TOHÁ: “IT’S A LOT TO UNDERSTAND THIS DECISION”
“We are very concerned about this case,” said the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Toháwhen the decision of the superior court was not yet known: “The Government does not intervene in these decisions and respects the work of bodies that are autonomous. However, when the result of a hearing of this type is known, It is very difficult to understand that decision, considering the antecedents,” he stated.
“We know that the Prosecutor’s Office is appealing this decision. We trust that this appeal will allow it to be reversed and that the police work manages to find, in that case, these people so that they can be deprived of their liberty again,” he added.
Therefore, “We are going to occupy and support what the Prosecutor’s Office is doing because it seems to us, in the light of experience, that it is better in these cases to be cautious and take the necessary measures to prevent possible leaks”, held.
Regarding Judge Pinto’s argument regarding the presentation of the background information, “the organizations, both the Prosecutor’s Office and the courts, “They have mechanisms to evaluate whether the behavior of both officials was correct.”added the Secretary of State.
SENATOR WALKER PROPOSES LAW TO AVOID BAIL
Once this judicial controversy was known, the Senator Matías Walker (Democrats)which represents the Coquimbo Region, announced the presentation of a bill to prevent bail from being an option to leave preventive detention in cases of this type.
“What this bill establishes is that when there are well-founded presumptions that an accused belongs to an organized crime gang, or that he is part of an organization linked to drug trafficking, he cannot be granted bail.“he explained.
