During the day this Tuesday, the Seventh Guarantee Court of Santiago refused to dismiss Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, sued for his alleged responsibility in the crime of illicit association, which he carried out together with other priests of the Salesian congregation against minors who studied in ecclesiastical establishments between 1973 and 2005.
The lawyer Marcelo Vargas, considered that Ezzati’s responsibility would be linked to when he served as provincial of the Salesians in Chile, he helped in the transfer of the late priest Rimsky Rojas from one school to another when the victims denounced the abuses committed by the latter.
According to Vargas, the other plaintiff attorney, Juan Pablo Hermosilla, and prosecutor Javier Armendáriz, litigated the defense of the defendant, who indicated that the accusation of illicit association would be the same as the one being investigated in Santiago, which was dismissed by the Court.
“The position of the magistrate, who was in rejecting the dismissal, was that illicit association is another crime, where there are other people who would have been co-authors of that crime of illicit association for sexual abuse, and the case in Valdivia is one more We are very satisfied as victims and plaintiffs that the dismissal has been rejected, because there are also pending proceedings,” he told Radio Biobío.
With these data, it should be noted that the investigation for illicit association against Cardinal Ezzati will continue, pending the taking of statements from other Salesian priests, witnesses and other victims of the abuses carried out.
