He Minister of Justice, Luis Corderoreproached in Cooperative to the opposition parliamentarians who insist on the idea of reinstating the application of the Military Justice within the project on the rules of use of force (RUF) of the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement, and questioned that in essence there exists an unjustified «distrust» towards the criminal system and the Public Ministry.
The right will try in the Senate to reincorporate the proposal into the RUF, despite the fact that the Lower House declared it inadmissible. The controversial indication establishes that uniformed officers who are accused of crimes committed in the exercise of their duties will be tried by military courts, in four hypotheses: in a state of constitutional exception and in the protection of critical infrastructure, border areas or electoral processes. .
The opposition argues that the application of this system would give «greater peace of mind and guarantees» to the military and police forces. Furthermore, as stated last week in Cooperative the senator and helmsman of the UDI, Javier Macayarequire «specialized justice» and that they not be prosecuted as «common criminals.»
However, Lamb replied in What’s left of the day to state that the criminal justice system does not have the expertise to judge soldiers «it’s a bad argument»because, contrary to what the right thinks, «Military Justice is not specializedit is a matter of jurisdiction, that is, given the investiture of a military man, it is a different kind of justice.»
Likewise, a big «problem» is that «we call it Justice, but does not meet any of the usual attributes of a common jurisdictional regime, which is independence and impartiality: Those who exercise it are people who have the status of officials, who are within the line of command, and it also works with military courts and the Military Prosecutor’s Office. And it is criticized for not meeting the same guarantees even for those who submit to it,» he said.
The lawyer also explained that, «in criminal matters, the general rule is that any person who commits a common crime is subject to the same courts.»
But there is the exception of Military Justice, in whose application «it is necessary to distinguish the crimes in times of peace and war«.
«In times of peace, in recent years the hypotheses have been shifting very clearly to converge on what Military Justice should be, that is, those associated with crimes of Military connotation, which the Code of Military Justice qualifies as such. And in the case of common crimes, as long as they were committed in the context of war or under a military establishment,» he explained.
and those crimes that the initiative talks about «are common crimes committed by soldiers, they are not military crimes«.
[📻] Minister of Justice, Luis Cordero: Military Justice has a problem, that it does not meet any attribute of a common jurisdictional regime, which is independence and impartiality. Those who exercise it are officials within the line of command #CooperativeWithYou
— Cooperative (@Cooperative) May 8, 2024
For this reason, Cordero stated that «it is not simply a political problem, but the proposal is a bad rule, because at the same time all the specialists have agreed that it requires a very significant structural change.»
«INADMISSIBLE DISTRUST, WITHOUT EVIDENCE»
Regarding politics, he questioned the background of the parliamentarians who support the restoration of the military instance: «Behind this There is a deep distrust in the criminal justice system and, particularly, in the role of prosecutors, and it seems that a trial that is inadmissible«.
In those who propose Military Justice, he reiterated, «underlying a criticism, which has no evidence, of a bias in the functioning of prosecutors«I think it’s a wrong criticism.»
In that framework, «there may be a political calculation, electoral times have that characteristic. I do not demonize it, but when one is designing rules and institutions one has to go a little beyond the situation and look at the structural effects,» he urged.
Furthermore, he stressed that The project on the RUF goes in the direction of granting greater legal certainty to the FF. AA. and the policesince, although the rules for the use of force already exist, «they are administratively regulated» and it is important that they have legal status so that «their application is not unknown» in the courts.
CONSCRIPTS: ARMY HEAD MADE «PAINFUL RECOGNITION»
In parallel, The Minister of Justice appreciated that the commander in chief of the Army, Javier Iturriaga, has admitted signs of «falsehoods and misrepresentations» in the initial background information provided by the institution about the fatal training march of the Motorized Brigade No. 24 ‘Huamachuco’ in Putre.
«He made a very painful recognition in an institution (…) I would pay close attention to the content of his statements, because they show the way in which he personally assumed the direction of these events,» Cordero highlighted.
In addition, he highlighted as «a good sign» that the Supreme Court appointed a visiting minister for the investigation, following a request from the Military Prosecutor’s Office.
[📻] Minister of Justice, Luis Cordero: The commander in chief made a very painful recognition; He would pay a lot of attention to his statements, because they account for the way in which he personally assumes direction of these events. #CooperativeWithYou
— Cooperative (@Cooperative) May 8, 2024