Based on the seriousness of the crimes with which he is accused, the Ninth Chamber of the Court of Appeals of Santiago rejected the protection request this Wednesday and decided to maintain the preventive detention of the former Deputy -Secretary of the Interior Manuel Monsalve, accused by the Prosecutor. Office as a person accused of rape and sexual abuse against a counselor.
After four hours of hearing, the decision of the appeal court confirmed the appeal resolution published last Tuesday, November 19, by the Seventh Court of Warranties of the capital.
“This Court, having particular regard to the seriousness of the facts, the number of crimes charged against the accused, the seriousness of the punishments given to them under the law, the seriousness of the offenses to the good of the law protected and committed. As for the victim – that is, the sexual integrity or the compensation and his sexual freedom -, he believes that the freedom of the accused is a threat to the security of society, with a restraining order like the most appropriate, reasonable and proportionate warning. measure for the purposes of guaranteeing the procedure”, specified the opinion, read by the Minister Antonio Ulloa.
Monsalve’s lawyers, Lino Disi, Cristián Arias and María Inés Horvitz – who announced today that she resigned from the defense due to “a difference in strategic-legal criteria on the part of -inside the team” – the appeal last Monday, with which they were trying to revoke the prison. of the Deputy Secretary of the Interior and requested house arrest.
“When I left the formality hearing I said that this was just beginning and it is still the same,” said Disi at the end of the legal case.
The defendant said that “the fact that we are beginning to see, for example, with the things that have been happening, such as that there is relevant evidence that you, with the journalists , saved which sheds light on what actually happened. the night where the events alleged by my client are believed to have occurred.”
There is still a long way to go, but based on our conviction of Manuel’s innocence, we are going to continue to work to gather information that will ultimately allow us to review this same situation , with a view to an oral trial that seeks the truth, “he assured.
After being formalized, Monsalve was sent on November 19 to the Rancagua prison, but three days later he was transferred to the Captain Yáber Penitentiary Annex, in Santiago, because of the threats received in the prison in the Department O’Higgins.
