The Seventh Guarantee Court of Santiago on Wednesday rejected a motion for nullity filed by the defense of former Supreme Court Minister María Teresa Letelier regarding the seizure of her mobile phone. Judge Isabel Correa ruled that while there were errors in the evidence presented by the Public Prosecutor's Office, the search and seizure operation was not illegal.
The defense, led by attorney Rodrigo Piergentili, argued that the warrant for entry, search, and seizure was based on false information provided by the Valparaíso Regional Prosecutor's Office. According to reports from latercera.com, the prosecution claimed that Letelier had staged a robbery to avoid handing over her device and had installed her SIM card into the phone of her daughter, Bárbara Quintana, a judge on the Rancagua Court of Appeals.
However, the former judge's lawyers successfully used telecommunications records to prove that Letelier's number had never connected to her daughter's device. Furthermore, the defense presented call traffic data to debunk claims of communication between the two devices, noting that the recorded call was actually placed by Quintana to Letelier following the incident.
Prosecutors acknowledge error
During the hearing, prosecutors Paola Castiglione and Claudio Reveco acknowledged that there was an error in the PDI (Investigative Police) report. Prosecutor Castiglione admitted that the documents reviewed by the judge confirmed that Letelier's SIM card had not been activated in her daughter's handset.
Despite this admission, the Public Prosecutor's Office maintained that the seizure request remained valid due to other suspicions. The prosecution presented statements from a building concierge who claimed not to have seen the former minister leave the premises on the day of the alleged robbery, as well as security camera footage that also failed to show her exiting the building.
Judge Isabel Correa described the error in the PDI report as "delicate" and "grave," noting that "the Public Prosecutor's Office may have doubts regarding the theft of the phone, but the evidence to claim that the SIM card was swapped and inserted into her daughter's phone has been completely ruled out."
Nevertheless, the judge ruled that the remaining evidence was sufficient to uphold the legality of the procedure. "That error in the request does not invalidate or render the action illegal (...) Consequently, the defense's motion is denied," the judge ruled.
Following the ruling, Piergentili expressed satisfaction at having debunked the prosecution's accusation, though he lamented that the motion for nullity was not granted. Meanwhile, the prosecution maintains its stance regarding the irregularities of the event, with prosecutor Reveco stating that while there is no certainty of fraud, there are "circumstances that leave no doubt about the situation."
