Senator Arturo Squella, president of the Republican Party, supported President José Antonio Kast pardoning police officers convicted over events during the social unrest of 2019. According to the senator, some officers should receive full freedom.
According to BioBioChile, Squella made his remarks on radio Agricultura. He maintained that the imprisonment of those officers is an injustice that must be corrected, although he rejected pressuring the president through the press.
"What the police officers were doing was carrying out their duties, and they cannot be serving prison sentences for that," he said.
His argument goes beyond the health of those convicted. Squella argued that the police were protecting the population and state institutions during the disturbances of 2019. For that reason, he defended the president's use of pardons even when the courts applied the law correctly.
As he explained, the rigidity of criminal law may have prevented judges from weighing the fact that the officer was also "defending the rule of law, defending state institutions, even defending democracy." In his view, granting a pardon "does not mean going against the judiciary."
The remarks come days before another anniversary of October 18. They also come amid a debate reopened by the humanitarian pardon request from Juan Aliste Vega, a former Lautaro militant convicted of the murder of Corporal Luis Moyano. Aliste died of terminal cancer before his request was resolved.
Republican support for that request exposed differences on the right. National Renewal (RN) and Evópoli favor considering sentence commutations, meaning replacing imprisonment with a less severe punishment. Squella tried to bring the positions closer together: he said a pardon can also replace imprisonment with house arrest in some cases.
However, he insisted that his support is not limited to changing where a sentence is served. He also separated this argument from humanitarian considerations. For terminally ill prisoners, he proposed discussing legislation that would avoid reliance on presidential decisions on a case-by-case basis.
"Does it make sense for us to keep appealing for pardons, or is it time for us to address this in law?" he asked.
The senator said the cases are under review but avoided linking a decision to the anniversary. The executive branch continues to review cases individually: on Tuesday, Justice Minister Fernando Rabat denied political pressure and did not commit to a date for deciding on the requests.
