The Supreme Court rejected this Saturday appeals for cassation presented by the defense of retired Army Colonel and former mayor of Providencia, Cristián Labbé Galilea, against the sentence that sentenced him to three years in prison for the consummated crime of applying torments. The crime was perpetrated in Panguipulli, in 1973, within the framework of Operation Peineta.
In a divided ruling, the Second Chamber of the highest court – composed of Justices Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm and Ministers María Teresa Letelier and Dobra Lusic – ruled out error in the contested sentence, issued by the Court of Appeals of Temuco, which confirmed the first degree that established the responsibility of Labbé Galilea in the crime.
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However, the Supreme Court granted Labbé the benefit of conditional remission, considering the advanced age of the convict.
According to the background of the case, a military patrol stopped Harry Cohen Vera at the home of relatives, in Futrono, on November 7, 1973. This, within the framework of Operation Peineta, in charge of the military reserve of Labbé in the mountain area between Concepción and Valdivia, and whose objective was the capture of people opposed to the dictatorship.
At the place of detention, Labbé threatened the victim with cutting his throat. He also led the torture sessions where he was subjected to electric shocks, among other humiliations.
The ruling
“That the facts clearly described are subsumed in the offence provided for and punished in article 150 No. 1 of the Criminal Code, in its text in force at the time, and the fact that the detainees are the object of the torments and initiating the proceedings that culminated in those coercions undoubtedly constitute actions considered and punished as authorship by article 15 No. 1 of the Criminal Code, by taking an immediate and direct part in its application,” the ruling states.
However, the Criminal Chamber considered that in the case, due to the age of the convict, the sentence should be served under the alternative regime of conditional remission, in accordance with international treaties on the protection of the rights of older adults.
“Acting ex officio, the sentence of three years of minor imprisonment in its medium degree imposed on Cristián Labbé Galilea in the sentence issued by the Minister in Extraordinary Visit, Álvaro Mesa Latorre (…) for the conditional remission of the sentence for a term of three years,” the ruling states.
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