Cristóbal Miranda case: final defendant released from preventive detention in Concepción
The Court of Appeals in Concepción reduced Agustín Saavedra's detention measure to total house arrest, leaving all seven defendants without preventive prison sentences.
No defendant remains in prison for Cristóbal Miranda's homicide
The Court of Appeals in Concepción revoked the preventive detention of Agustín Saavedra, the last of the seven defendants accused of the homicide of Cristóbal Miranda who remained in custody, according to biobiochile.cl. The Fourth Chamber of the court granted the defence appeal on Wednesday and replaced the detention measure with total house arrest.
The Guarantee Court in Concepción had previously rejected the change in detention measure. Saavedra's defence, represented by lawyer Andrés Cruz, then appealed to the Court of Appeals, whose judges Rodrigo Cortés and Carola Rivas voted in favour of the reduction. Judge María Alejandra Ceroni voted to maintain the preventive detention.
Cruz argued before the chamber that the latest evidence in the case could modify the classification of the crime. "The tragedy that ended with the death of a young man may have had aspects that could eventually be different from those substantiated by the prosecution's case theory and the Public Ministry's theory, regarding whether it could be not only a qualified homicide, but another possibility that could be a simple homicide and, why not?, also homicide in a fight or quarrel," the defence lawyer stated.
With this ruling, none of the seven defendants accused of qualified homicide currently faces preventive detention. Saavedra is identified as the first to deliver the blows that caused Miranda's death.
Plaintiff's lawyer Remberto Valdés, who represents the victim's parents, stated that the focus is now on closing the investigation and on the oral trial. "Obviously we respect the ruling, we do not agree with it, and we await the swift closure of the investigation to obtain a conviction before the Criminal Oral Trial Court in Concepción against all those responsible and we will ask them all for effective life imprisonment," Valdés stated.
Caroline Olivares, Cristóbal Miranda's mother, severely criticised the ruling. She noted that the same judges who this week reduced Saavedra's detention measure are those who, approximately a month ago, did the same with another of the defendants, Luciano Gutiérrez.
"We did not expect the Court to return with the same votes, the same judges to vote in the same way. This again reinforces that the justice we have in Chile is a guarantor-focused justice, and as long as everything remains the same, our country will continue to fall into an infinite hole of violence. I insist again to everyone involved in justice and also to the Government to review what is happening. I ask myself, what is the weight of the law?", Olivares stated.
The information was reported by judicial journalist Fabián Polanco of Radio Bío Bío Concepción.
Source: Google News CL — Crime