against Juan Patricio and Florencio Jaime Marileo Saravia, José Benicio Huenchunao Mariñán,
Juan Ciriaco Millacheo Licán and Patricia Roxana Troncoso Robles. The Public Prosecution
Service, the complainant Forestal Mininco S.A., owner of the Poluco Pidenco plantation, and the
complainant Office of the Malleco Provincial Governor, intervened as plaintiffs. Public defenders
and private lawyers participated for the defense of the accused and, among other matters,
denied the participation of the accused in the events. The parties offered testimonial,
documentary and expert evidence.134
125. The accused had been held in pre-trial detention from January 28, 2003, to February 13,
2004, with the exception of Juan Patricio Marileo, whose pre-trial detention had been ordered
on March 16, 2003 (supra para. 121), and José Huenchunao Mariñán who, despite having
benefited from an “order for immediate release” as of February 13, 2004 (infra para. 332), was
detained until February 20, 2004. In addition, Ms. Troncoso Robles and the Marileo Saravia
brothers were detained from August 17 to 22, 2004, the date on which execution of the
judgment commenced. The time they had already served was deducted from the prison
sentence.135
a) Judgment delivered on August 22, 2004, by the Angol Oral Criminal
Trial Court
126. On August 22, 2004, the Angol Oral Criminal Trial Court delivered judgment,136 in which
it convicted the accused as “perpetrators of the offense of terrorist arson” for the “act
committed on December 19, 2001, on the Poluco Pidenco property, in the Ercilla commune.”137
The court imposed the punishment of 10 years and one day of medium-level rigorous
imprisonment and the ancillary penalties of “[a]bsolute and permanent disqualification from
public office and positions, and absolute disqualification from titled professions for the
duration of the sentence.” It also admitted the civil complaint and sentenced the accused
jointly to pay Forestal Mininco S.A. the sum of $424,964,798 Chilean pesos for pecuniary
damage.
134
Cf. Judgment delivered on August 22, 2004, by the Angol Oral Criminal Trial Court, first, second and fifth
considerandum (file of annexes to the Merits Report 176/10, annex 18, folios 607 to 687).
135
Cf. Judgment delivered on August 22, 2004, by the Angol Oral Criminal Trial Court, third operative paragraph (file of
annexes to the Merits Report 176/10, annex 18, folios 607 to 687); Decision on “hearing to open the investigation” issued
on January 28, 2008, by the Collipulli judge; Decision on “hearing on the control of the detention and to open the
investigation” issued on March 16, 2003, by the Collipulli judge; Release order issued on February 13, 2004, by the
guarantees judge of the Combined Court of Collipulli; Note No. 179 issued on February 17, 2004, by the judge of the
Combined Court of Alcazar, Collipulli, addressed to the Head of the Angol Preventive Detention Center advising that he “had
been mandated to inform him that José Benicio Huenchunao Mariñán […] must remain in the center”; Decision issued on
February 20, 2004, by the Collipulli judge in relation to the urgent request of the defense counsel of José Benicio
Huenchunao Mariñán, and Note No. 201 issued on February 20, 2004, by the judge of the Combined Court of Collipulli
addressed to the Head of the Angol Preventive Detention Center informing him of the “ annulment of Note 179 of February
17, 2004” concerning José Benicio Huenchunao Mariñán (file of annexes to the Merits Report 176/10, appendix 1, folios
8652 to 8677, 7804 to 7808, 9671 to 9677, 9681, 9697 to 9699, and 9733 to 9736).
136
Cf. Judgment delivered on August 22, 2004, by the Angol Oral Criminal Trial Court, first and fifth operative
paragraphs (file of annexes to the Merits Report 176/10, annex 18, folios 607 to 687).
137
The court found it had been proved that “on December 19, 2001, a group composed of around 50 persons from the
Mapuche communities of Tricauco, San Ramón and Chequenco, entered the Poluco Pidenco property […] and proceeded to
light more than 80 small fires in two sectors of the plantation.” This resulted in “two major fires in this plantation,” one of
which affected an area of approximately 18 hectares of […] pine and eucalyptus nitens forest, undergrowth and protected
areas,” and the other “an area of approximately 89 hectares composed of pine and eucalyptus nitens forest, and protected
areas. In addition, the court found it proved that the firefighters and members of the police who arrived at the plantation to
extinguish the fire were obstructed and attacked, and that the accused had been seen starting some of the said small fires
and, specifically, that José Benicio Huenchunao Mariñán “directed and indicated how to start the fires and where do so this.”
Cf. Judgment delivered on August 22, 2004, by the Angol Oral Criminal Trial Court, fourteenth considerandum (file of
annexes to the Merits Report 176/10, annex 18, folios 673 and 674).
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