Héctor Llaitul’s defense lawyer, Josefa Ainardiconfirmed that he will present a annulment appeal to reverse the 23-year prison sentence determined against the leader of the Coordinadora Arauco Malleco (CAM), after the Justice declared him guilty of various crimes in the Southern Macrozone.
In addition to establishing the payment of a series of fines, the Oral Criminal Court of Temuco sentenced Llaitul to 15 years of effective imprisonment for the completed and repeated crime against public orderunder the State Security Law, to others five years of imprisonment as author of the completed crime of theftalready three years more as the author of the consummated crime of attack against authority.
Hours after the sentence was handed down, the lawyer stated that «it draws our attention that the bulk of this effective prison sentence, 15 of 23 yearsrefer to illegal acts that are contained in the State Internal Security Law«, because «it is a law of political persecution.»
Ainardi pointed out that the crimes recorded in that norm that are part of the ruling «were created in 1975, in the middle of the military dictatorship,» and that since the return to democracy, «There has not been a single person in our country who has been convicted of these crimesprecisely because they are questioned both at the international level and at the doctrinal and jurisprudential level, regarding the character restrictive of guarantees such as freedom of expression, freedom of thought and also, in particular, the right to exercise the free autonomy and self-determination of members of indigenous peoples.»
«We believe that there is an error in the interpretation made by this ruling and by the court in general, with lack of knowledge of international standards on human rights as important as ILO Convention 169, and others such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the San José Pact of Costa Rica, among others,» he added.
In that sense, «What we have as a defense is to try to annul the conviction through an appeal for annulment that we will present in the coming days, and We also do not rule out the filing of complaints or appeals at international headquarters.since we believe that there has been a better reception of this debate in terms of respect for the rights of indigenous peoples and fundamental guarantees (…), an issue that we believe that in this Chilean State – which in our opinion refers obviously a racist and colonialist character – has had no basis».
In closing, the jurist insisted that the sentence is the result of a «political persecution based on statements made by a historic spokesperson for the CAMwhich refers to a posture of resistance and also of vindication of political, territorial, cultural and spiritual rights of the Mapuche people.»
«THE CAM IS NOT PART OF THE MAPUCHE CAUSE», ACCORDING TO VICTIMS
Among those celebrating what was resolved by Justice is Alejo Apraiz, president of the Association of Victims of Rural Violencewho came out to recognize «the great job done by the Prosecutor’s Office to allow, with its investigation, the conviction against Héctor Llaitul».
Apraiz stressed that the convicted person is «leader of a criminal and criminal organization that caused so much psychological and patrimonial damage has caused in the Southern Macrozone; a terrorist organization, also linked to wood theft and drug and arms trafficking.
«Therefore, we have nothing left but to congratulate the neat and planned work carried out by the Prosecutor’s Office (…), It has been shown that this illicit association is not part of the Mapuche movementand only uses his cause for personal and criminal purposes,» concluded the leader.
That said, he called to continue investigating all the groups that claim arson attacks in La Araucanía.