The Chilean justice raised six ex-military personnel who participated in the kidnapping and murder of singer-songwriter Víctor Jara from 3 to 10 years in prison.
The Chilean justice increased the penalties imposed on seven ex-military men convicted of the kidnapping and murder of singer-songwriter Víctor Jara and former prison director Littré Quiroga, which occurred days after the military coup led by Augusto Pinochet, on September 11, 1973.
“The Court has unanimously resolved to requalify the sentence that had been imposed for crimes of simple kidnapping for seriously qualified kidnapping,” Alejandro Rivera, judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals, reported on Tuesday.
The court increased the sentence for the kidnapping of Jara and Quiroga from 3 to 10 years for the six former officers -Raúl Jofré, Edwin Dimter, Nelson Haase, Ernesto Bethke, Juan Jara and Hernán Chacón-, but maintained the sentence of 15 years and a day for the murder of both victims, he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, he raised the sentence of former officer Rolando Melo from 61 days in prison to 5 years for covering up the kidnappings. In addition, he must serve a sentence of 5 years and one day in prison, as a cover-up for the homicides.
Those convicted can appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
Jara, a member of the Communist Party and one of the most recognized voices of popular music in Chile and Latin America, was arrested, tortured and murdered with 44 bullets after the Pinochet coup in September 1973 in Santiago, which ended the government. of the socialist Salvador Allende.
He was detained at the State Technical University, where he was a professor, the day after the coup and after that, he was imprisoned and recognized by the military who brutally tortured him.
Littre Quiroga, was a national director of prisons and also a member of the Communist Party. His body, also showing signs of torture, was found next to that of Víctor Jara.
Chile officially asked the United States in 2014 for the extradition of ex-officer Pedro Barrientos, accused of being the material author of the crime of the famous folklorist, but the demand remains so far without answer.
In a civil trial, a US federal court declared, in June 2016, the former Chilean officer responsible for the murder of Jara, and ordered the payment of 28 million dollars in compensation to his family. (I)
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