The only police officer convicted of the death of Iván Vásquez inside the Third Police Station of Chile Chico, in 2014, will serve his sentence in freedom. for domestic violence. According to the first police version, the victim would have committed suicide in the dungeon, however, the expert reports of the Legal Medical Service denied this version.
The military justice sentenced to three years in prison the only Carabineros official convicted of the death of Ivan Vasquez, the worker who lost his life inside the Chile Chico police station.
According to the ruling to which BioBioChile had access, the Fourth Military Court of Coyhaique confirmed the first instance decision once morest the non-commissioned officer Jose Gamboa.
The foregoing, as the author of the crime of unnecessary violence causing serious injuries to Iván Vásquez Vásquez, in May 2014.
But in addition, the convicted person was granted the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence, being subject to the surveillance of the respective administrative authority for the same period of time.
It should be noted that in the first instance, following waiting seven years, he sentenced Noncommissioned Officer Gamboa to 5 years and one day in effective prison, paying for the 152 days he was detained in preventive detention at the police station.
A ruling that did not satisfy the widow or her lawyer, so they filed an appeal, seeking a higher sentence.
Consulted in this regard by BioBioChile, Carabineros -for the moment- has not ruled on this case.
The death of Ivan Vasquez
Let us remember that Iván Vásquez died on Sunday, May 4, 2014, following being detained by Carabineros as a result of a complaint of domestic violence.
According to the testimony of his widow, Juana Leuquen, and her young children, the police officers violently entered her house, beating her.
The man was arrested and transferred to the 3rd Police Station of Chile Chico, where he ceased to exist inside one of the dungeons.
In a first instance, Carabineros assured that it was a suicide by hanging, following tying a shirt to a grid.
However, his medical death certificate indicates that the cause of death was “Hypovolemic Shock” caused by a “Closed Abdominal Trauma”, product of a “hepatic injury”, which was reflected in the first autopsy report.
In simple terms, he bled to death from a blow that pierced his liver, in a death that experts say is very painful.
Military Justice described as “reckless” to act as a carabinero
Finally, the Military Justice in its sentence classified Gamboa’s actions as “reckless”. But he considered his previous irreproachable conduct as extenuating.
The ruling, for its part, does not mention anything else regarding the alleged suicide, or if the injury that the victim presented to the neck was caused by the action of third parties.
He only mentions that the neck injury is not very compatible with the use of the shirt that appeared tied to the grid.
On the other hand, the expert report of the Legal Medical Service establishes that “the deceased did not have the physical strength to hang himself, even under the stressful situation he was experiencing, and that furrow might have occurred during the struggle to suppress it with some garment or other.”
Defense filed an appeal to the Military Justice
In this regard, the lawyer Cristián Cruz, who represents the widow, Juana Leuquén, confirmed the presentation of a appeal.
But in addition, he questioned the decision of the Court Martial assuring that “it is incoherent”.
“He talks regarding the death of the victim as a result of violence, to later dictate a sentence in which he indicates that the victim only suffered ‘serious injuries’ and is held responsible for his own death,” he questioned.
“Obviously something is wrong, not only in terms of legal technique, but mainly due to the lack of justice for a victim whose ribs were fractured, and these ribs end up lacerating the liver,” he said.
“In addition, there is a very clear report from the Legal Medical Service, which states that the alleged suicide, in short, is nothing more than a staging to try to make believe that the victim is guilty of his own death, when in fact It was a product of the beatings and torture of which he was a victim at the Chile Chico Police Station,” he criticized.