This past Monday, the Angol Criminal Court of Trial acquitted all charges brought by the Public Prosecutor’s Office to the Mapuche Comunero José Queipul Hueiquil, regaining his freedom after having spent 10 months in pre-trial detention.
In the court’s view, the evidence presented was insufficient.
Queipúl Hueiquil was brought to trial after being charged with four firearms-related offences: illegal carrying of firearms, illegal porting of ammunition, receptation and unjustified firing.
These offences were charged with him after a confrontation with Carabineros in a rural area of the commune of Traiguén in April 2019. In that instance, Queipul Hueiquil was shot by uniforms in the middle of a police procedure.
The uniforms accused the Mapuche commune firing a firearm at them, so it was formalized and sent to pre-trial detention.
According to the lawyer of the Mapuche Criminal Defendership, Humberto Serri Gajardo, “all the scientific evidence presented at the trial indicated that this version was not true,” as Bío Bío told radio.
