Brief Interview with the Legal Team of Comrade Marcelo Villaroel, Prisoner Currently in C.P. Rancagua ‘La Gonzalina’
Marcelo was convicted by the military court in the 90s for various urban guerrilla actions when he was a member of the Mapu-Lautaro (Marxist-Lenenist organization with which he broke ties afterward to begin moving towards antiauthoritarian paths). He was in prison for these actions for more than a decade and was released with intra-prison benefits. Said benefit was broken after he went underground when he was accused by the press and the police of having participated in various bank robberies. For these acts he would be sentenced to 14 years of prison.
From Espacio Fénix and thankful for their willingness, we present a brief interview that we carried out with the comrade’s legal team with the intention of understanding his current legal situation.
1. Under judicial logic and time served, Marcelo has already finished his sentence for bank expropriations. Why is he still in prison?
Indeed, Marcelo should already be free. But the Gendarmerie of Chile and the Public Prosecutor’s office in their various allegations and reports have added the previous sentences established by the Military Court, as if in the Security case he hadn’t served a single day.
2. What does it mean that Marcelo is being processed by the military court?
Currently, no civilian can be judged by a military tribunal. Sadly in the 90s and part of the 200s, these tribunals were able to judge civilians, which meant a systematic violation of various fundamental rights such as, for example, due process. In this sense Marcelo, because of the era in which he was processed and the political context of his actions, was unjustly sentenced in a system that is totally illegal, as was also indicated by the Interamerican Court in other cases, condemning even the Chilean State.
3. What have been the results of the various legal motions that have requested the revision of the application of military law to the comrade?
During the legal process that we’ve had with Marcelo, we’ve taken several actions, but all of these were mainly framed in the application of parole, since he fulfills all the requirements for this. However finally the courts, contrary to all criminal principe, have retroactively applied a reform to DL 321 which regulates parole establishing heavier requirements.
4. What is the legal team doing? What legal motion remains? And how can we support, as comrades who find ourselves outside the prison walls?
Understanding that all of the legal montions with respect to parol have been exhausted, the path that we’re working on is the presentation of an appeal for review, which mainly seeks to annul all of Marcelo’s military justice convictions. We believe that even in these legal logics established in this chilean system, there is not a singly argument concerning the illegality of the processes of military law against civilians. For this reason, we will ask the Supreme Court for its pronouncement, which has already accepted our thesis in cases of court-martial convictions.
So, we think that we need to focus our energy on Marcelo’s case, visibilizing this situation and exerting political pressure. This is the last legal measure in Chile that we have in regards to his case. The sitation that he is living through is entirely unjust and his freedom is paramount.
Translated by Act for freedom now!
actforfree.noblogs.org