The Atacama Prosecutor’s Office asked the Copiapó Court of Appeals for the removal of immunity from the deputy Jaime Mulet (RSVF). This, within the framework of the investigation against the parliamentarian for the crime of passive bribery.
The Public Ministry is carrying out an investigation for the crimes of bribery and bribery, linked to a transaction contract signed by Minera Candelaria and the municipality of Tierra Amarilla -when Mulet was advising the mayor of the commune, Osvaldo Delgado-, in the context of environmental conflicts that occurred in that locality.
The hearing to formalize Mulet was rescheduled three times. In the last one -which would take place on April 5, 2022-, the deputy did not appear. His defense alluded to the fact that he would attend once he was out of court.
Given this refusal, the Prosecutor’s Office requested the removal of immunity from Mulet, “in order to compel the parliamentarian to appear at the formalization hearing and in this way, prevent said investigation from continuing to be unjustifiably dilated,” the Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
“During the ongoing investigation, it has been possible to formalize and obtain personal precautionary measures against several of those accused of the crimes investigated, with the sole exception of Deputy Mulet, for having refused to attend the pending formalization hearing. “, added the persecuting entity.
The case
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the former mayor of Tierra Amarilla Osvaldo Delgado (deceased), arranged and advised by the lawyers Jaime Mulet (today deputy), Ramon Briones Y Hernan Bosselinrequested and accepted, in violation of the duties of the position, the payment of economic benefits for the municipality and third parties, from the contractual company Minera Candelaria, agreeing to a transaction contract on environmental damage, in violation of the law.
In said contract, the municipality renounced or did not persevere in the action to repair environmental damage caused in the commune by the mining company; it undertook to notify the OECD through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the parties had reached an agreement; declare and acknowledge without reservation the non-existence of environmental damage alleged in lawsuits, complaints or existing actions based on a new study in which it was indicated that such damage did not exist or had not been caused by Candelaria.
For the Prosecutor’s Office, the conduct displayed by the team of lawyers made up of Mulet, Briones and Bosselin resulted in jointly urging former Mayor Quevedo to accept economic benefits for third parties in exchange for failing to fulfill the duties of his position.
For the Public Ministry, the three actively collaborated in the conduct of the mayor by having a determining role in their own acts in the negotiation and drafting of this illegal transaction.
The economic benefit requested by the former mayor, after advice from the aforementioned team of lawyers, reached the sum of $7 million dollars, of which, $3 million dollars remained in municipal coffers and the remaining $4 million dollars, on behalf of the municipality, but without going through the municipal coffers, they were used to pay the fees of the advisers and lawyers Briones and Bosselin.
