The Minister of the Interior and Public Security, Carolina Tohá, assured that the approach made by the national prosecutor, Angel Valencia, regarding not “not prejudging” the assistant lawyer of the Los Vilos Local Prosecutor’s Office, Luis Sotopoints to the need to review the procedure that has been at the center of the controversy this week.
In a review of precautionary measures, the judge Daniella Pinto He reprimanded the representative of the Public Ministry and replaced the preventive detention that had been set for a group of members of the Aragua Train investigated for kidnapping. The defendants paid a bond of $5 million to access house arrest. The Court of Appeals of La Serena He reversed that decision, however, the defendants had already left the prison where they were being held.
Two of the accused have already surrendered to the police.
“We hope that the other two will soon be in the same condition and we are working hard for this, to find them or to create the conditions for them to surrender of their own free will, because it is what corresponds,” Tohá stated this Friday.
After a visit to the practical modules of the PDI Police Investigation School, the minister was asked about Valencia’s opinion, who mentioned the possibility that the lawyer had received threats before the hearing.
“In relation to what was raised by the prosecutor, I read the prosecutor’s statements a little differently. He points out that any doubt in this matter should be investigated and an investigation should be carried out if there was any situation of that type. AND I also see from the prosecutor’s statements the need to review the procedure, because there are situations that are not common in how this happened and it has to be established why it was like that, If that corresponds to some particular context or some shortcoming that existed, to wrong decisions. “That is part of the evaluation that the prosecution has to make and we think it is very positive that it is done, because clearly that was a hearing that did not go well,” said the Secretary of State.
