At 9 am (local time) of this day o’clock began in the Santiago Justice Center the formalization hearing against Manuel Monsalvethe former Chilean Undersecretary of the Interior who caused the biggest crisis so far in the Government of Gabriel Boric, after being accused of rape for one 32 year old junior. Everything indicates that it will remain in preventive detention.
Monsalve was arrested this Thursday at his home in Vina del Mar and transferred, handcuffed, to a PDI barracks in the Santiago commune of Ñuñoa where he spent the night. And although it was revealed from the Public Ministry that the formalization will focus on crimes of abuse and completed rape, The former authority could also be charged with violations of the Intelligence Lawafter ordering PDI officers to review the security cameras of the restaurant and the hotel where they had dinner and spent the night, and carry out investigations “with stealth” to contact the victim and find out if he planned to report it or not.
María Inés Horvitzone of the lawyers on the team of the defenestrated former authority, assured this Thursday that the legal team is “highly surprised for this devious action by the Prosecutor’s Office, demanding investigative secrecy for 40 days and we have not had access to the research until now, that (Monsalve) is already detained,” he stated. Once upon a time.
“It has been so surprising, we are upset, no one told us anything And we had two meetings with them: They told us that, if a hearing was scheduled, we could have the background information,” he said.
“Receiving the folder only today (Thursday) forces us to work intensely to prepare a minimum adequate defense”, closed the lawyer.
Lino Disianother of his lawyers, maintained that “we understand that The detention was a completely and absolutely unjustified and unnecessary procedure. “You know perfectly well that Manuel was at his home and the fact that the same order was executed at his home shows that the same order, which is based on ensuring someone’s appearance, was not simply necessary,” he argued.
“It was a court order, so the possibility of attacking the foundations is very difficult. The truth is that we understand that The Public Ministry gave in to media pressure and that this defense is not going to do it,” he concluded.
The director of the Legal Clinic of the U. Diego Portales, Cristian Riegohe explained in a radio interview Cooperative that “it is quite inevitable that preventive detention will be requested Because of what happened today (Thursday), it would be very strange if he had requested an arrest warrant, they were going to arrest him in Viña del Mar and then tomorrow (today Friday) they would release him. “It doesn’t seem to me that that will happen, so the most likely thing is that the prosecutor will ask for preventive detention.”
This “will fundamentally depend on the judge seeing that the case is solid, that there is evidence and that he considers that there is some justification for detaining him, although in This case is usually more or less automatic due to the severity of the penalty, especially if there is more than one crime because The prognosis for punishment is high.”he indicated.
A Ciper report revealed that the defenestrated former authority met with the victim on at least two occasions, for work reasons, after the sexual encounter they had. September 22 at the Panamericano Hotel in Santiago.
In one of those appointments, the complainant clearly told him that everything that happened that night had been without your consent, due to the amount of alcohol eaten at the previous dinner. This conversation would have taken place the first week of October and after that, the young woman requested medical leave and was absent from La Moneda until today.
About a week later, the former socialist militant also asked the PDI for the “procedures with stealth”, aimed at contacting her and finding out if she was thinking of filing a complaint, in addition to reviewing the security cameras of the restaurant and hotel, an issue that cost the head of National Intelligence her job, Cristina Vilches.
“And the first detective who spoke with the victim was a person within the course of these proceedings ordered by the accused. “They approached his apartment,” the prosecutor detailed Xavier Armandáriz in the guarantee precautionary hearing.
According to the aforementioned media, Ricardo Lilloa colleague of the victim and part of his close circle, testified on October 18, ratifying the testimony of the victim, who would have told him everything that happened to him and a small group of officials who restrained her, at a lunch. This testimony would destroy Monsalve’s version that suggests that both were drugged, since he said he did not remember anything of what happened that night.
Added to this is the second complaint for sexual assault filed by the young woman, which occurred the morning of the next day, since after waking up in the hotel still in “state of shock” and with signs of a huge hangover, Monsalve “proceeded to give me two pills for my discomfort.” The complainant went back to sleep and when she woke up, she suffered a new attack attempt, which would not go further since the former authority had told her that it seemed that he was “forcing.” Shortly after, the young woman would leave the hotel.
Because of this, and if found guilty, Monsalve risks harsh penalties that could total up to 20 years in prison.
