Pablo Longueira seeks not to attend all hearings in SQM case: accuses violation of rights

The former UDI senator, Pablo Longueira, presented with his defense a request for inapplicability for unconstitutionality before the Constitutional Court (TC) for the SQM case in which he is accused.
With the request, Longueira seeks not to be present in court throughout the oral trial because this would violate his rights.
The lawyers of the former senator explained that the accused must attend in person from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. from Monday to Friday for 18 to 24 months in the 3rd Court of Oral Criminal Trial of Santiago. If you don’t show up, you risk an arrest warrant.
In the February 1 trial, Longueira’s lawyer, along with other defenses, asked the court for the presence of the accused remotely, which was accepted for people over 60, a group in which the former senator is.
However, now “it is sought that their presence is not imperative, either in person or telematically, throughout the development of the trial, which is estimated to last more than two years. The idea is that he is present only when necessary and says related to his particular situation,” Joanna Heskia, Pablo Longueira’s defense lawyer, told La Tercera.
The request details that the case mixed cases that are not related to his client, to the point that “Mr. Longueira must attend, under threat of preventive detention, the trial of other people and other facts.”
In addition, they maintain that 80% of the evidence that will be presented at the trial is not related to him, so that his presence at all hearings is unnecessary.
“The fundamentals are legal; this rule (which obliges the accused to appear throughout the trial) collides directly with the right to freedom of movement and with the right to work, it was never intended for trials of this duration and also, because in practice, due to the arbitrary grouping made by the Public Ministry of the SQM case with the case of Pablo Longueira, that the 2 years of investigation were processed separately, in practice Mr. Longueira is being forced to attend the trial of other people who have nothing to do with his case,” concluded Heskia.

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Original source in Spanish