He lawyer representing the Christian Democrats in the cause for the death of former President Eduardo Frei Montalva, Luciano Fouillioux, criticized in Cooperative the decision of the Court of Appeals of rule out homicide and acquit all defendants.
The lawyer rejected that the court of appeal did not properly assess the contextual situation not even circumstantial evidence, using -he said- criteria with which a common crime is judged, when that “99 percent “of the sentences in cases of human rights violations have been constructed on the basis of presumptions.
“It is a fundamental point, because in the causes of violation of human rights, where we have had several convictions, the central test of these causes are judicial presumptions and that is easily explained, because Unlike common crimes, the rest of the evidence – whether confessions, expert opinions or others – is important, but there are no confessions on human rights, “Fouillioux said in conversation with The Cooperative Journal.
“I think there are one or two generals who actually confessed participation in crimes, one of them in the Berríos case. However, there are multiple causes – I would say the vast majority, 99 percent of convicting human rights cases – that have been built on the basis of judicial presumptions“, he emphasized.
“PROOF OF PRESUMPTION”
In crimes against humanity “such is the disgrace that is committed against the population and individuals – and in this case against the former President of the Republic – that It takes a lot for someone to come and say ‘I killed him’ or ‘I wanted to kill him because I received an order’. In the case file of President Frei there is a quantity of antecedents that, combined with each other, give full satisfaction to the presumption test“, recalcó Fouillioux.
“A cause of this nature, without context, is not a cause“, emphasized the lawyer, when remembering that this investigation” has a recognized and proven participation – as even the ruling of the Ninth Chamber recognizes it – of CNI personnel and those belonging to the security agencies around the figure and the person of the President Frei Montalva: wiretapping, monitoring, there are confessions that indicate that even at the funeral, after the President died, in the Cathedral, at the mass of Cardinal Silva Henríquez, there were 25 CNI officials watching“.
HISTORICAL TRUTH VERSUS LEGAL TRUTH
During that time, Frei Montalva “was effectively the most relevant figure (of the opposition), who clearly threatened the future stability of General Pinochet’s regime “, recordó Fouillioux.
“President Frei’s social political pact with Tucapel Jiménez ended up costing both their lives in a fraction of 40 or 50 days, in such a way that you can’t subtract a judge around this, because it has elements to spare in that file that it reviewed on the part of the minister Madrid “, raised.
The lawyer said that, in the Court of Appeals, “a ruling was built around a absolution that we think is weak and we are going to try to reverse with legal arguments before the Supreme Court, which does know well in terms of judicial presumptions. “
However, “whatever the outcome” in the highest court, “historically and for the collective memory of the country, President Frei’s life was taken from him and that is known to public opinion “.
“The legal truth necessarily has to effectively take charge of this element, it is not a probe balloon that is detached or disjointed from reality. The legal is reality and what happens is that there is a bad or erroneous interpretation of the sentencing”, Fouillioux pointed out.
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