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Juan Subercaseaux Amenabar, Juan Pavin Villar,
and Eduardo Contreras Mella
Santiago
September 16, 2005
1.The Honorable Supreme Court on September 14, 2005 (Rol N°
4397-2005) declared inadmissible the motions to vacate on
the merits of the case and on the basis of procedural consideration
that we filed on behalf of plaintiffs of Operation Condor
case, one of the most horrendous episodes of political genocide
in Chilean history, committed by the dictatorship of Augusto
Pinochet Ugarte. Through that motion we aimed for the high
court to overturn or dismiss the weak one page ruling of June
7, 2005 by the Fourth Bench of the Santiago Court of Appeals.
That decision revoked the indictment of Pinochet on the sole
basis of health considerations dating to 2002 on account of
simulated senility, when Pinochet is notoriously and publicly
known to be fully lucid.
2. Now the Honorable Supreme Court has ruled inadmissible
our motions to vacate and has allegedly absolved or permanently
dismissed Pinochet from Operation Condor case. The text states
nothing of the kind. Neither did it uphold an alleged dismissal
on account of health issued by the Fourth Bench of the Santiago
Court of Appeals. The Fourth Bench only revoked the indictment
of Pinochet in Operation Condor and stated that he is not
indicted in this case, as indicates the text of the ruling
issued by the Honorable Court. The ruling of the Fourth Bench
only states that the court a quo (today Judge Victor Montiglio)
"must issue the ruling that is proper according to law."
In other words, the Fourth Bench neither temporarily nor permanently
dismissed Augusto Pinochet Ugarte from Operation Condor. Neither,
so far, has Judge Montiglio; nor has the Honorable Supreme
Court.
3.
The only implication of theHonorable Supreme Court ruling,which
was issued without a hearing of parties to the case, is to
indicate that motions to vacate are not the proper procedure
for this point in time (They are no admissable.) for challenging
a ruling that revokes an indictment, which is essentially
temporary, as the Fourth Bench of the Santiago Court of Appealsd
did not issue either a temporary or a permanent dismissal.
Rather, it left that decision up to the Tribunal de primera
instancia or "a quo," exercised today by Judge Victor Montiglio.
Should the Court eventually dictate dismissal, the decision
may be appealed by plaintiffs of Operation Condor and may
be reviewed by the Fourth Bench, composed of judges not involved
in the case. Moreover, even that ruling could be appealed
and admitted on motion to vacate by the Honorable Supreme
Court.
Thus, by no means has the Honorable Court dismissed, absolved,
or found Pinochet not guilty in Operation Condor case, as
mistakenly stated in communications media, possibly due to
the procedural and technical complexity of the inadmissibility
ruling.
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