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Through a public statement, the General Council of Prosecutors (body that brings together national prosecutor, Jorge Abbott, and regional prosecutors), rejected the accusations on an alleged “improper or disproportionate use of criminal law” against people detained in the framework of social demonstrations and acts of vandalism registered after the social outbreak of October last year.
The Council – which spoke on behalf of the Public Ministry – openly rejected the bill presented by the Senators Isabel Allende (PS), Yasna Provoste (DC), Adriana Muñoz (PPD), Juan Ignacio Latorre (RD) and Alejandro Navarro (Progressive Country) what proposes a general pardon for those who carried out acts of violence -even serious-, with the express exclusion of “members of the Armed Forces and Public Order and Security, or officials of any of the agencies and powers of the State at the time of the commission of the facts.”
Denies “arbitrariness” in preventive prisons
The Prosecutor’s Office also criticized the fundamentals of said legal initiative, by emphasizing that the “prosecutors carry out their duties autonomously and strict adherence to legality “, in “Actions always subject to scrutiny and control by the Courts of Justice and hence, alien to all arbitrariness “, with “full guarantees of objectivity, seriousness and transparency “.
🔴 Check here the Public Declaration of the @FiscaliadeChile on the questions to the Justice System and its institutions, related to the prosecution and penal sanction of acts constituting crimes in the context of social demonstrations: pic.twitter.com/3CYBI8Fi2p
– Chilean Prosecutor’s Office (@FiscaliadeChile) December 14, 2020
“In the face of especially serious facts and duly founded on the antecedents emanating from the investigations that are being carried out, The Prosecutor’s Office requests precautionary measures of greater intensity, such as preventive detention, which are evaluated in public hearings, in which the defense of the accused intervenes and in which a Court of the Republic decides, a decision that is regularly reviewed, in turn , by a higher collegiate court. This process prevents any arbitrariness“, remarked the institution.
In this line, the writing continues, “The Chilean Public Prosecutor’s Office cannot share assertions that there would be hundreds of people deprived of liberty for minor crimes, or against whom an improper or disproportionate use of criminal law would have been made. “
“The persons subject to the action of the Courts of Justice They are not in this condition because of their thoughts or opinions, but because of acts that constitute crimes“, he emphasized.
For this reason, “Criticisms of the procedural status of cases related to the social outbreak context constitute an unacceptable generalization, which demands that their authors individualize them“, he summoned.
“Very serious signal”
Finally, the statement states: “The Chilean Prosecutor’s Office makes present that a bill of pardon as presented in the National Congress in the last days it could constitute a very serious signal for social coexistence “.
This due to “poses conditions that would void, among other causes, the sentence to 11 years in prison imposed on John Cobin, for attempted homicide and the Arms Control Law, after shooting on public roads in Viña del Mar, on November 10, 2019 “.
If successful, the project in question would also “prevent prosecution of the criminal responsibility of the two defendants in preventive detention for the bombing with an explosive device in the Tánica building, on February 27 of this year “, he exemplified (see attached file).
Piñera announced a veto
The controversial senators’ bill – including the President of the Upper House, Adriana Muñoz (PPD)– had already been rejected by the Association of Prosecutors, and both analysts and politicians from various sectors, the Government and organizations such as Human rights observer have rejected the rating of “political prisoners” which is loosely granted to those accused of the aforementioned vandalism.
This Monday, earlier, the President Sebastián Piñera reaffirmed the criticism of said initiative and stated that, if it is successful, it will apply the presidential veto, well “not only weakens public order and citizen security, but also weakens democracy, the rule of law and the freedoms of citizens“.
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