At approximately 9:00 a.m., the former commander in chief of the Army, Ricardo Martínez, arrived at the office of the visiting court-martial minister, Romy Rutherford, to testify as a defendant for his participation in the so-called “milicogate” by the edge of “Pasajes y Fretes”. After the meeting, Minister Rutherford left Martínez detained.
His defense in the case, Juan Carlos Manríquez, explained that General Martínez (r) was notified of a provisional arrest until next Tuesday, April 5, when the Court will decide whether he will be prosecuted or released due to lack of merit.
On this occasion, Minister Rutherford decided not to prosecute him and in the meantime, Martínez will serve five days of detention in the Military Battalion located in the Peñalolén commune.
In the so-called “Tickets and Freight” area, framed in the case of Fraud in the Army, the PDI investigates 15 trips of the former commander-in-chief between 2009 and 2019, where it was analyzed in how many of these trips there was irregular behavior with the funds granted to officers of the institution for international travel.
Despite this, former general Ricardo Martínez went to the Constitutional Court to stop the cases filed against him and it is expected that he will rule in the coming days once it is known whether he is prosecuted or released.