The Martial Court declared that “the amounts defrauded” by the former commander in chief of the Army Ricardo Martínez, prosecuted in the artist “tourism companies” of the investigation carried out by the visiting minister Romy Rutherford, after the uncovering in 2018 of a controversial institutional fraud.
The decision of the military court represents a severe setback for Judge Rutherford, after she recently opened an investigation against the colonel and minister in the Martial Court, Isaías Martínez, in the same area also known as “travel agency” and that consisted in requesting quotes for official trips for the highest possible price and then making refunds —or using part of the money on personal trips—. And, without a doubt, the revocation of the process against him is a vital help for General (R) Martínez.
You may also like:
By three votes to two, the Martial Court revoked the prosecution of the visiting minister, accepting the arguments of the defense of the former Army boss, from which they argued that the amounts of the fraud were inaccurate, that the alleged irregular trips were prescribed and that Martínez would have returned US$400 to the account that the Army has for these purposes.
For its part, the State Defense Council (CDE) pointed out that there was a report from the PDI that determined the magnitude of the fiscal damages and that there were eight facts that founded the prosecution of Judge Rutherford. However, the presentation of the CDE failed to convince three of the five ministers of the Court Martial.
In detail, the representative of the Army, Colonel Paula Videla, was about to revoke the prosecution of Martínez; the official of the Fach, Francisco Costa; and the civil member, the minister of the Court of Appeals of Santiago, Dobra Lusic. And against was the police colonel, Álvaro Castillo, and the other civil judge, Juan Muñoz. In this way, the final resolution of the military appeal court declares that Ricardo Marcelo Martínez Menanteau “is not prosecuted in this case, for now, as the author of the crime of fraud against the Treasury.”
The military court asked Minister Rutherford for an expert report to determine the amounts charged to the general (R). The judges indicated that “the Minister in Extraordinary View will order the practice of an accounting expertise in order to determine the existence of the tax damage and the amount to which it would amount.”
The defense of the former commander in chief, the lawyer Juan Carlos Manríquez, indicated that “many of his statements (of the prosecution) were seriously contradicted by the merits of the file itself.”
Now it will be the CDE who will have to decide whether to appeal a complaint to the Supreme Court to seek to reverse the decision of the military court.
The general (R) had been prosecuted by Rutherford on April 5, in the area called “Tourism Agencies.” The judge had questioned eight trips made by Martínez in service commissions, between the years 2011 and 2017. In addition, she had questioned that, in three of these transfers, Martínez traveled accompanied by his wife.
The arguments were made Thursday afternoon at the Court Martial. On the occasion, for about 30 minutes, the former officer’s lawyer, Juan Carlos Manríquez, presented the arguments that questioned the prosecution. Among these, it was found that a large part of the facts would be prescribed, and that there was a detailed justification for each of the trips. He exhibited, for example, the invitations that were extended to Martínez’s wife, as well as the official photographs of the trips made.
Juan Carlos Manríquez indicated that “the resolution of the Martial Court annuls the prosecution that weighed on General Ricardo Martínez. Mainly, taking into account that he lacked sufficient background to be able to attribute this situation to him, and even more so because many of his statements were seriously contradicted by the merits of the file, as the court could see, in each of the accusations made against him. they did”.
Martínez added that “each and every one of them fell into the analysis fell into the analysis that was made on the stand.”
