[Politics] They begin a criminal investigation into the case of Judge Barraza

[FNX Magokiler]

At least four defenders, one of them a staff member of the Public Criminal Defender's Office (DPP), which depends on the Ministry of Justice, had access to the data of protected witnesses and undercover agents. The Public Criminal Defender's Office assures that the data is safe, but this afternoon the Public Ministry began a criminal investigation, for violation of the articles of the Drug Law that require confidential data of this type of cases to be kept secret. .

While yesterday the relocation of witnesses and undercover agents who had the status of protected until before Judge Héctor Barraza ordered their identities to be handed over to the defense lawyers of the criminal organization Tren de Aragua, in Arica, several sources confirmed this afternoon that the National Prosecutor, Ángel Valencia, ordered the initiation of a criminal investigation due to the violation of several regulations regarding the secrecy that must be maintained in investigations. This investigation fell to the Regional Prosecutor of Iquique and Tarapacá, Raúl Arancibia.

It is worth mentioning that, among other regulatory bodies that sanction the disclosure of secrets, the drug law establishes in its articles 30, 31 and 38 that prosecutors are obliged to protect the identities of witnesses, experts, informants or undercover or revealing agents, as well as those of their relatives, while the court "must decree the prohibition of revealing, in any way, the identity of protected witnesses or experts, or the background that leads to their identification." The violation of the above, the regulations indicate, has a minor prison sentence in its medium to maximum degree (from 61 days to 3 years). The law also indicates that the same penalty applies to anyone who disseminates or discloses information that is secret or, even, the mere fact that an investigation of this type is being carried out.

As El Mostrador was able to establish, one of the sources of concern is related to the conduct of one of the court officials, who, as soon as the hearing was over, without even a record of it yet existing, handed over the records with the individualizations of the 57 protected witnesses and undercover agents to four defense attorneys, despite the judge's instruction that his handover had to be coordinated.

 

 

In the hearing led by Héctor Barraza, he denied the presence via zoom of the prosecutor in charge of the case, who no longer lives in Arica, due to the threats against him (for which he has authorization from the committee of judges of that city, to attend the hearings remotely) and did the same with the plaintiff lawyer representing the Ministry of the Interior.

Meanwhile, this afternoon, the Undersecretary of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve, pointed out that “the government is analyzing the constitutional and also legal powers it has to show that it seems to us that it is wrong and possibly negligent conduct and therefore we are analyzing the powers that the government has, among them we are analyzing the constitutional powers that are vested in the President of the Republic, particularly in article 32 of the Constitution, which gives him the power to review the ministerial conduct of judges and other employees of the Judicial Branch. This matter has been entrusted to the Minister of Justice, Luis Cordero, but I want to say from now on that the government intends to act, to show that we believe that this conduct is serious conduct that should not have occurred and that must be prevented." .

He insisted that what Judge Barraza did “is a serious decision, because first he did not allow the intervening parties to be heard, such as the prosecutor in charge himself, who had to testify precisely because he is under protective measures via telematics, he was not allowed to participate. in the hearing and the lawyers of the Ministry of the Interior were not allowed to participate in that hearing either,” evaluating positively the fact that the Court of Arica had decreed an order not to innovate regarding the delivery of the information.

The effects of resolution
In addition to the indignation that Barraza's decision generated at different levels, yesterday efforts began to be made to relocate various witnesses and undercover PDI agents, some of whom spent several weeks infiltrating the criminal organization, using false identities. 

 

https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2023/09/14/inician-investigacion-penal-por-caso-de-juez-barraza/