proven, be they favorable or unfavorable to the accused, as well as an assessment of the evidence on which said conclusions were based according to Article 297.21 32. The State asserted that in granting the procedural appeal, the Supreme Court was ensuring that judicial decisions are issued with strict adherence to the procedural precepts that govern the reasoning given for verdicts. If the procedural appeal was granted, argued the State, it was not because it was deemed that the acquittal must lay out in detail the reasons why the defendant is innocent; rather, it is because a requirement demanded by the procedural law for judgments was missing. The State continued that this cannot be interpreted to mean that the Supreme Court presumed criminal liability of the petitioners for the events investigated. 33. With regard to its alleged violation of the principle of ne bis in idem, the State asserted that this did not occur in the present case, because the ban on double prosecution refers to a final judgment not subject to appeal. According to domestic legislation, a decision is considered final or res judicata once the parties are notified of it and there is no appeal against it. 22 In this case, the verdict of acquittal issued by the Trial Court of Angol was susceptible to appeal on procedural grounds, and therefore there was no violation of the aforementioned principle. 34. It bears mention, according to the State, that in this case the Public Ministry investigated and filed charges according to the standards of law 18,314 which criminalizes and punishes terrorist conduct. In the opinion of the State this was because the facts that gave rise to the investigation and subsequent prosecution fall within a framework of criminal activity taking place in Region Nine, perpetrated by a group of people who use ideological discourse based on claims to ancestral rights to come together to plan, organize, and carry out crimes. The purpose of these criminal acts is to instill fear among the population, or part of it, that one will fall victim to these kinds of crimes, by the means employed. There is evidence that it is all part of a premeditated plan to attack a certain category or group of people, particularly owners of agricultural estates and tree farms in the areas that the perpetrators have declared to be in conflict. The purpose is to pressure them to abandon their estates, and at the same time pressure the authorities to turn the land over to these groups. The State asserted that such a hypothesis is covered by law 18,314. 35. The State added that in order to give context to the events, it should be noted that since December 16, 2000, the Public Ministry has had to investigate numerous cases of serious crimes that have occurred in different areas of Region Nine, such as fires set to forests, planted fields, and farmhouses, as occurred in the case which led to the petition. There have also been burnings of agricultural and forestry machinery, attempted homicides, and serious harm to owners of agricultural estates, lumber company workers, attacks on privately owned vehicles, acts of aggravated damages, and other crimes. Thus far more than one hundred such complaints have been received and the victims are demanding justice. From the investigations conducted by the Public Ministry it is known that these acts are carefully planned and are executed in a similar way, and that the same people are repeatedly involved in these episodes of violence. They usually wear hoods and operate in groups, spreading fear among the population, particularly the rural population of small farmers and owners of agricultural properties, as well as the forestry companies. All of these actions have the population living in fear, including the indigenous communities that do not subscribe to these violent methods for demanding their rights. In Region Nine there are more than 3,500 Mapuche communities, encompassing 203,950 people. Thus, the less than 60 people involved in this criminal activity, many of them non-Mapuche, are a relatively small percentage of the Mapuche population. 36. The State added that while law 18,314 was enacted in 1984, most of its rules have been modified through various legal texts since 1990, in order to bring it in line with Constitutional and legal standards currently in force. 21 22 Article 342(c) Criminal Procedure Code Article 174, Civil Procedure Code 7