All six defendants were found not guilty Friday of placing bombs throughout Santiago and financing terrorist attacks in the controversial “caso bombas” (bomb case). Judge Marcela Sandoval heard the case, which was determined to have insufficient evidence.
Mónica Caballero (23), Felipe Guerra (23), Gustavo Fuentes Aliaga (31), Francisco Solar (32), Carlos Riveros (33) and Omar Hermosilla (46) left the Third Criminal Court of Santiago after spending the last six months on trial, reports La Nación.
“We said that this accusation was loose, messy, precarious and groundless, in which there was involvement of those in power,” Rodrigo Roman, lawyer to Omar Hermosilla Marín, said to Puranoticia.
The court dismissed part of the prosecution’s evidence which led to the opening of the investigation, deeming it invalid because it was obtained through illegal means. It also considered defendant Gustavo Fuentes Aliaga’s statement, in which he claimed he was tortured by Lieutenant Colonel Sergio Escobar Berríos in the presence of the prosecutors Xavier Armendariz and Francisco Jacir.
“I cannot prove it, but neither can the District Attorney’s Office or the plaintiffs,” Aliaga said in his statement. “If there had been a lawyer present on that day, it would all have been different. There wouldn’t have been a “caso bombas” if a lawyer had been there,” said Aliaga’s attorney, Claudio Aspe.
“Caso bombas” began on Dec. 31, 2008, when Fuentes Aliaga, who had been arrested on an unrelated charge of attempted murder, confessed to participating in the placement of four bombs in Santiago. He also provided the names of six people allegedly involved in the bombings and described how the explosive devices were made.
His confession spurred an investigation into a string of periodic bombings that had taken place throughout Santiago since 2006 and continued after Aliaga’s arrest.
The investigation reached a fever pitch after June 12, 2010, when a bomb exploded about seven blocks from the house of President Sebastián Piñera.
Two days after this bombing, District Attorney Alejandro Peña was appointed to the case, replacing Xavier Aremendariz, who allegedly oversaw Aliaga’s forced confession. Within a month, Peña ordered the arrest of 14 anarchist squatters accused of conspiracy of terrorism, three of which (Caballero, Guerra and Solar) had been identified by Aliaga during his questioning.
In April 2011, Peña filed charges against Aliaga, the three anarchists who had been arrested, and Riveros and Hermosilla, who were accused of financing the operation. He requested a sentence of life imprisonment. The trial began in November 2011, and finished Friday due to the lack of evidence.
)
