Appellate court confirms sentence for former officer in killing of two young people during military regime
Chile's highest court upheld a fifteen-year prison sentence against a former uniformed officer, finding him responsible for the murder of two people in 1973.
Appellate court confirms sentence for former officer in killing of two young people during military regime
Chile's highest court of justice upheld the fifteen-year imprisonment conviction against a former uniformed officer, finding him responsible for the murder of José Andrés García Lazo, an audiovisual professional aged 29, and Jorge Rodrigo Muñoz, an 18-year-old student in higher education. Both lost their lives in 1973 in the Santiago sector.
The magistrate in charge of cases involving abuses against fundamental rights, Paola Plaza, reconstructed the events: on the night of 18 September, the two young men were returning to Muñoz's home during curfew, following Independence Day celebrations. A resident of the sector accused them of causing disturbances, which prompted the intervention of law enforcement officers.
Despite both having already entered the residence, the uniformed officers forcibly removed them, forced them to lie on the pavement, fired fatal shots at them, and then threw their bodies into the waterway from the viaduct known as Zanjón de la Aguada.
In 1991, their remains were exhumed in sector 29 of the General Cemetery. Expert examinations established that the cause of death was massive blood loss caused by gunshot impacts. Neither of the two victims had links to political organisations.
According to figures released by Prensa Latina, the authoritarian period that governed Chile for 17 years left a toll of more than 40 thousand people affected by maltreatment, illegal arrests, kidnappings and extrajudicial executions, not counting approximately 200 thousand citizens who were forced to leave the country.
Source: Google News CL — Crime