The Ninth Chamber of the Court of Appeals of Santiago rejected the request of the Western Metropolitan Prosecutor’s Office to modify the precautionary measure of total house arrest, which was decreed by the Seventh Guarantee Court, for eight of the defendants in the alleged corruption and arms trafficking network led from the La Serena prison.
On the other hand, the appellate court ruled on a second appeal, this time by the defense, and revoked the precautionary measure of deprivation of liberty that had been decreed for two other people involved. Among them is the captain of the institution who is classified by the Public Prosecutor’s Office as the leader of the criminal group.
With this, all the arguments of the defense were accepted and, in summary, only one of the detainees will remain behind bars for now, whose case was not discussed on this occasion.
The bottom
Regarding the first appeal, that of the Prosecutor’s Office, the Court agreed with the Court of Guarantee in ruling out the danger to the security of society, given the low sentence assigned to the crimes. It should be noted that the officials are accused of bribery and money laundering.
“It is important to note that the Court did not question either the existence of the facts investigated in this case, or the participation of the accused in them. What the appeal court does is point out that the prospect of associated punishment is minor. As the Prosecutor’s Office, we believe that there is a reality and that is that corruption crimes committed by public officials have low penalties, which, in fact, start at 61 days in prison. That is, they could be fulfilled in freedom. We understand that this is what the Court refers to in its ruling,” they declared after the hearing from the Western Metropolitan Prosecutor’s Office.
They also highlighted the “minority vote” within the constitution of the Ninth Chamber, which did consider a danger to the security of society and stressed that “all the accused will continue to be under total house arrest.”
Regarding the second appeal, this time from the defense, attorney Carlo Silva, from the Defensores Norte law firm, who represents the defendants from the Coquimbo Region, explained that “what the Court does is confirm that it is not proven that a criminal group exists. If that is overturned, the ‘functionality’ given to the Gendarmerie captain is overturned and it is ruled out that he is the leader of the organization in the way proposed by the Prosecutor’s Office.”
Silva said that the defense team is “satisfied” and added that “that is precisely the role of the defense team: to balance the system and give it equity and, of course, to ensure that the investigation continues.”
Media case
It was on Friday, June 14, when the Carabineros’ OS9, with support from the GOPE, raided the homes of a dozen officials at the La Serena Penitentiary Complex.
The investigation points to an arms trafficking network, which was commanded from the prison, a context in which the gendarmes had the function of bringing in prohibited elements, through an alleged corruption network led by a captain.
In total, 20 people were brought before the courts: six inmates transferred from five different prisons in the country, nine Gendarmerie officials, one former official and four civilians, who allegedly acted as “front men” in the efforts of the accused to conceal the assets generated illegally.
According to the Metropolitan Prosecutor’s Office of the West, those involved would have increased their income by up to 270% with this method. This, according to the words of the prosecutor Marcos Pastén, was in response to statements made by the lawyer Carlo Silva in El Día, where he pointed out that there was a “great scenario set up” around the case.
Regarding the above, the defender reiterated his perspective.
“I greatly respect the position that Mr. Pastén has representing the Prosecutor’s Office, it is his job. But the statements we made from the beginning, when we learned about the background of the investigation, were that this entire long list of crimes was not proven, and today it was confirmed. “Both the Guarantee Court and the Court say that not all of the story presented by the Prosecutor’s Office had a truthful background and a correlation in the criminal investigation.”
Asked about the increase in the assets of the accused through illicit actions, Silva indicated that he was responding to a “calculation” made by the Prosecutor’s Office that he described as “somewhat illogical.”
“If he bought a vehicle worth $20 million, that represents a ‘significant’ percentage compared to what he earns monthly and that is how he arrives at a percentage that he advertised (…). We are going to prove with the deposits and a financial appraisal that we are going to do for each of our defendants, that the money they had and the vehicle they bought were acquired from absolutely legal sources,” he concluded.
