El Ciudadano
Original article: Más de 100 años a cuestas: condenan otra vez a fiscal militar de la dictadura por la muerte bajo tortura de estudiante socialista
The Court of Appeals in Temuco has issued a new ruling against Alfonso Podlech Michaud, the military prosecutor during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, who has now been sentenced to over 100 years in prison for crimes against humanity.
This time, the appellate court upheld the conviction of Podlech for his role in the tortured death of socialist student S.O.F.B., which occurred in November 1973 at the Tucapel Regiment in Temuco.
In a unanimous decision, the First Chamber of the Court confirmed the challenged sentence, originally handed down by extraordinary visiting minister Álvaro Mesa Latorre, ordering that the five-year prison sentence imposed on the ex-prosecutor be served under total house arrest with electronic monitoring.
In civil matters, the appellate court also confirmed the ruling that required the Chilean government to compensate the victim’s siblings, although it reduced the compensation amount for moral damages to $100 million and exempted the state from paying legal costs.
In the ratified first-instance ruling, Minister Mesa Latorre established that at the time of the events, the victim, S.O.F.B., was 23 years old, a university student and a member of the Socialist Party.
The ruling stated that «immediately following the military coup on September 11, 1973, the armed forces took control of the city of Temuco.» In this context, Podlech Michaud, a reserve lieutenant in the Chilean Army, was called to collaborate with the new regime, working in the Military Prosecution Office at the Tucapel Regiment.
It was further noted that from September 11, 1973, «civilian individuals began arriving at the regiment, summoned to present themselves at the Military Prosecution Office through notices published in the written press and on the radio, or brought in as detainees from various points in the region,» according to the ruling. Additionally, the Military Prosecution Office was bolstered with officials from the Judicial Branch to cope with the high number of detainees.
The ruling highlighted that beginning on November 27, 1973, S.O.F.B. was arrested at his home by military personnel and taken to the Tucapel Regiment, where he was seen in poor condition by both his mother R.B. and other political detainees inside the facility.
After a session of torture, the young student expressed that he «could not endure another session of this type.»
Despite the military informing the family that S.O.F.B. had been released on November 30, his corpse was later found in the morgue of the Regional Hospital of Temuco: «Family members assert that on November 30 of that year, military officials informed them that he had been set free. However, his body was found and identified in the morgue by his mother and T.C.S.,» as indicated in the ruling.
The autopsy protocol concluded that «the precise and necessary cause of the victim’s death was asphyxiation determined by a convulsive study,» indicating signs of electric torture.
«Due to its microscopic and histological morphological characteristics, it must be attributed to the effects of an electric current applied to the anterior chest wall as well as the wrist of the left hand. Furthermore, the necropsy only showed the presence of condylomata acuminata and old scar retraction on the penis. Notably, there are no additional pathological alterations that would suggest other possibilities of this death, which is estimated to have occurred suddenly and for which there are no police records regarding what happened, » stated the sentence.
Minister Mesa Latorre emphasized that Podlech Michaud, in his capacity as military prosecutor ad-hoc and legal advisor to the Military Prosecution Office, had full knowledge of the events and held decision-making powers within the regiment. Nonetheless, he «did not report or notify military authorities or any other authority of the illegal activities being investigated.»
The ruling included testimonies that reinforce Podlech Michaud’s responsibility. Aquiles Alfonso Poblete Müller declared that «the person chiefly responsible for all of this, who decided the fate of the detainees, was lawyer Alfonso Podlech.» Eleodoro Rubilar Bascur added that Podlech regularly visited the penitentiary in military attire, exercising authority over the detainees, as inferred from the ruling.
Additionally, it was established that R.B., following her son’s death, visited the Tucapel Regiment in Temuco to request the return of photographs and other items seized during the search of her home. She met with Óscar Alfonso Ernesto Podlech Michaud, who refused her request and apologized for the error related to her son, a situation that infuriated R.B., leading the military prosecutor to order her confinement in a cell.
Over 100 Years in Prison for Prosecutor Alfonso Podlech
It is worth noting that in July 2008, Podlech Michaud, against whom an international arrest warrant existed, was detained at Madrid’s Barajas Airport and extradited to Italy, where he remained imprisoned for 970 days accused of the disappearance of Italian-Chilean citizen Omar Venturelli.
In March 2011, the Rome Review Court granted him supervised release due to his advanced age and minimal flight risk.
However, the 89-year-old ex-military prosecutor has been sentenced to serve over 100 years in prison for his involvement in the crimes against humanity committed during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, which he currently serves at Colina I prison located in the Metropolitan region.
The prior conviction issued by the Court of Appeals in Temuco occurred in April of this year, when the Supreme Court confirmed a 20-year prison sentence against Podlech for illegal coercion and qualified homicide of D. A. M.G. and J.M.O.A., offenses committed in October 1973 in the city of Temuco.
La entrada Over a Century of Sentences: Military Prosecutor from Dictatorship Convicted Again for Torture-Related Death of Socialist Student se publicó primero en El Ciudadano.
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