The Supreme Court on Monday chose the five candidates for national prosecutor. Among them is the former persecutor Rodrigo Rioswho in the past signed a mandate to represent the drug trafficker Richard Eduardo Riquelmeknown as Richard Rico or “the most dangerous Chilean in the world”.
As revealed ThirdRíos signed together with his partner Edward Picand a broad mandate to represent Riquelme. The employment relationship was maintained until December 28, 2021. This could leave him out of the race for the position of national prosecutor.
The candidates to lead the Public Ministry had to sign a sworn statement stating that they were not subject to disabilities,
Article 61 of Law 20,000 (Drug Law) indicates that “lawyers who work as officials or employees contracted in any capacity in the services of the State Administration or in decentralized institutions or services, territorially or functionally, may not sponsor nor act as attorneys-in-fact or attorneys-in-fact for defendants accused of crimes, misdemeanors or misdemeanors contemplated in this law.”
The Dutch justice sentenced Riquelme to 11 years in prison in 2021 for leading a criminal organization.
River Defense
The former prosecutor defended himself and commented that he acted as sponsor of the accused, within the framework of an extradition process. Furthermore, he pointed out that this would not constitute a disability.
“It is an extradition that came to my office, in which with my partner Eduardo Picand, we processed extraditions and that case was brought before the Supreme Court,” Ríos told the aforementioned media outlet.
“It is a case of a preliminary hearing, it is an extradition and not a guilty trial where an analysis is made regarding the merits of the matter and the merits are analyzed regarding whether or not to grant his extradition to the Netherlands,” he added.
“There is no substantive defense, but a procedure where it is analyzed whether the extradition requirements are met. It is not an inability, because it is a procedure that is only technical, a passive extradition and not a substantive defense”, he emphasized.
