Parliamentarians from a politically transversal group, from the Socialist Party to the Independent Democratic Union (UDI)presented a bill to combat kidnapping for ransomwith which they seek to give greater powers to the Prosecutor’s Office.
«What this project does, collecting the Italian experience of the 90s, is nip in the bud the business behind the extortionate kidnappingempowering and granting greater powers to the Public Ministry so that it can request a temporary freeze of the assets and accounts of the kidnapped person and his family«explained the deputy Raul Soto (PPD).
In this way, he specified that «The responsibility and burden of negotiation is not placed on the family members, but rather on the competent authority that is carrying out the investigation, which is the Prosecutor’s Office.«.
The parliamentarian pointed out that in 2022 this type of crimes increased by 68% and said he had worked on the project with the national prosecutor, Angel Valenciaand the director of the specialized Organized Crime unit of the Public Ministry, Ignacio Castillo: «They are collecting the experience and recommendations of Italy in this matter, in combating organized crime and these new forms of crime and have valued this initiative. «They have been open to collaborating in the processing in the commission to enrich the text and try to generate a law that is efficient and that definitively allows us to control this increase in kidnappings in our country.»
«There WILL NOT BE MONEY AVAILABLE»
For his part, the deputy Henry Leal (UDI) supported the initiative and indicated that «in order to combat organized crime, drug trafficking, extortion, tWe have to take exceptional measures. «We want to put an end to that business, so that organized crime criminals know that if this bill becomes law, there will be no money available for them to continue threatening and extorting Chileans.»
«It will establish a real precautionary measure for the victim and his close circle, to effectively cut off these resources that could eventually make the payment of a kidnapping effective, eliminating the commission of this crime repeatedly. That’s why, eliminate the trace of the crime, make that traceability, deny or freeze these fundss so that a kidnapping payment is actually made, It is an important and innovative measure«said the parliamentarian Raul Leiva ().
Meanwhile, the fNational Prosecutor Ángel Valencia and the Minister of Justice, Luis Cordero, attended the Senate Constitution Commission this morningMeanwhile in Carolina Tohá arrived in the Chamber of Deputiesleader of the Interior, to continue the discussion of the security agenda.