Court decrees preventive detention of defendant for bribery and treasury fraud due to danger to the security of society – 2024-04-17 21:07:13

The Court of Appeals of Rancagua confirmed the preventive detention of Carlos Felipe Rodríguez Cajas, accused of the crimes of bribery and tax fraud, considering that his freedom constitutes a danger to the security of society. Illicit acts recorded during the administration of Mayor Juan Ramón Godoy.

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the appeal court – made up of Minister Pedro Caro Romero, judicial prosecutor Álvaro Martínez Alarcón and lawyer (i) Ximena Carmona Torres – annulled the $100,000,000 bond that it established the Rancagua Guarantee Court, by imposing the precautionary measure due to flight risk.

“That, for the correct decision of this arbitration, it should be kept in mind that the accused Rodríguez Cajas has been charged with twelve crimes of bribery, within the framework of direct awards and deals for a total amount of $646,285,783, a context in which the penalty assigned to the crime, provided for in article 250, fourth paragraph in relation to article 248 bis of the same legal body, considering the repetition, remains within the framework of a crime sentence (…)”, states the ruling.

For the court of appeal, in the specific case: “(…) considering the above and taking into account the original nature of the present investigation, it is not possible to conclude that preventive detention is based solely on the risk that the accused will turn to escape, but in the fact that his freedom constitutes a danger to the security of society, given the seriousness of the facts that are the subject of the formalization and the nature of the same, especially since they are crimes of corruption of the public function. , which affect the tax assets in a broad sense, all reasons that justify amending the contested resolution, in the sense that the preventive detention of Rodríguez Cajas is imposed because his freedom constitutes a danger to the security of society.

In the case, the Second Chamber confirmed the measure of total house arrest decreed against Javier Ignacio Cornejo Diez de Medina, accused by the Public Ministry as the author of the crimes of embezzlement of public funds, treasury fraud, money laundering, bribery and use of a false private instrument, rejecting the defense’s request to impose only partial nighttime house arrest.

According to the prosecuting entity, Rodríguez Cajas and Cornejo Diez de Medina were favored with awards and direct treatment contracts by the mayor of Rancagua, Juan Ramón Godoy, in exchange for paying bribes to the communal chief.