Court rejects Vargas’ appeal to prevent the review of his messages with Hermosilla

Court of Appeals of Santiago dismissed the protection appeal that lawyer Mario Vargas presented in April against the State Defense Council (CDE) and the Public Ministry to prevent them from reviewing the messages he exchanged with Luis Hermosilla, which are in the cell phone of the controversial lawyer who was the protagonist of the “Hermosilla Case.”

The seizure of the mobile device generated a series of issues that have not yet been fully developed. The analysis of Hermosilla’s chats with different figures from the public and private world generated a report of more than 770 thousand pages with transcribed conversations. The investigation, so far, has led, for example, to the formalization of Sergio Muñoz, former director of the PDI.

Vargas, who has defended several high-profile cases, acknowledged in April -when he filed the appeal- that he has had conversations with Hermosilla “for years, which have diverse content, and which range from absolutely personal matters, exchanges of opinions, to the situations of some clients that we defended jointly, which have no relation to the facts investigated, but are inserted within my private sphere and access to other conversations implies a violation of professional secrecy.”

That said, he justified his legal action by arguing that “extracting all the conversations without a time limit or reference to the facts that he was initially investigating, brings very serious consequences to the statute of guarantees that the Constitution guarantees to all people,” said the lawyer.

Before, he was a lawyer for Former Deputy Gustavo Hasbún (UDI) when he was accused of asking for bribes and thus ordering preferences within the projects presented to the Ministry of Public Works. He also defended the former head of Army intelligence Schafik Nazálaccused of spying on the journalist Mauricio Weibel.

He advocated for Priest John O’Reillysentenced to 4 years in prison for sexual abuse against a minor. Among more public cases, he was the lawyer of Parived, Tonka Tomicic’s former partner for alleged links to a criminal organization that supposedly sold stolen watches and jewelry. In that line closer to the entertainment world, he also appeared as the lawyer of Hernán ‘Nano’ Calderónson of Raquel Argandoña, who was tried after stabbing his father.