Urgent: The Bombs Case trial is suspended

from solidaridadporlxspresxs, transl waronsociety:

URGENT: THE BOMBS CASE TRIAL IS SUSPENDED.
The prosecution’s tricks and ruses could annul the whole trial.

On May 11, 2012, the court of appeals decided this time to accept a challenge made by the Southern Prosecution of the Ministry of the Interior in which the judges are accused of bias and lacking in impartiality.

Courtroom one of the appeals court voted in the majority to accept the challenge, immediately paralyzing the trial. The judges who have until recently carried out the trial — Marcela Duran Sandoval, Carlos Carrillo and Blanca Rojas — of the Third Oral Criminal Tribunal will have to send out report soon about the accusations that the prosecution is making, while meanwhile the ruling indicated that they should “abstain from further intervention” until the challenge is resolved. Which in other words means the complete and absolute stoppage of the bombs case political trial, which has already gone on for more than 107 days of hearings, and almost 6 months of inquisitorial process.
The trial was continuing its course, and had gotten to the presentation of evidence and witnesses by Francisco Solar’s defense, Mónica Caballero’s defense, and it was at Omar Hermosilla’s defense when the trial was paralyzed.
This resolution comes during the recesses when the next thing was for the Minister of the Interior Rodrigo Hinzpeter and the ex-prosecutor Alejandro Peña to testify as part of Omar’s defense’s evidence.
It is clear that the political and juridical pressures were able to do more and continue bogging down this process and legal accusation that has regrettably lasted for almost 2 years, just when the trial was about to end.
The situation following the “challenge” is still unknown. If it is accepted and approved, it would automatically disqualify the 3 judges and the trial would have to happen again with new judges, on the other hand if this suspension extends the trial it could run the risk of annulment due to a legal framework that prevents a trial from being valid if it is suspended for more than a certain number of days.
On Monday May 14 in the court, the disqualification of the judges and the suspension of the trial will be discussed.
For his part, the prosecutor Víctor Nuñez indicated with an ironic smile that they had asked the Court of Appeals that “they announce in advance the judgment that we have detected coming down the pipeline. It was not intended to annul the trial.” Obviously his sole motivation is the annulment of the trial.
Far from the technical and legal language with which they seek to bog down the whole process and turn it into a labyrinth, it is necessary to understand a couple of things. During the 6 months that the trial has lasted, the prosecution has gone to absurd lengths trying to incorporate the dismissed “Illicit Terrorist Association” as a concept, in links, and in evidence that would prove this crime. On the other hand, and different from what many think, the prosecution has not given this trial up as lost and will try at any cost to dirty any process for the purpose of winning gains and future sentences. The prosecutors’ pride gives no truce, and they seek to demonstrate the exemplary punishment with whoever has questioned the order of their world.
At the same time, we again repeat and make evident the real motivation and the players of this legal ploy. Papers like “El Mercurio” knew about and published this resolution even before the defense’s own lawyers, repeating what happened in August 2010 when the press gave the names of those arrested before the arrests happened. The move could be for different reasons: Intentions to annul the trial, in order to change the tribunal [the 3 judges], to prolong and indefinitely extend the case, to avoid the statements from Hinzpeter or Alejandro Peña, to hinder the presentation of evidence and witnesses by the defense, to intimidate the judges who fall against them, to pressure the tribunal a few days before they dictate the sentence, maybe separately or maybe all of them together.

END TO THE ANTI-TERRORIST LAW!

ABSOLUTION OF THE ACCUSED!