Chilean Senate committee approves bill to free political prisoners

Santiago de Chile, August 12 (RHC)-- The Constitution Committee of the Chilean Senate approved with three votes in favor and two against, the idea of legislating the bill on pardoning political prisoners of the social outburst occurred in 2019.

Valued as a key response by local media, the bill that proposes a general pardon for humanitarian reasons for detainees in the framework of the social outbreak, is an initiative that is still in its first constitutional procedure.

In eight sessions, during which more than a dozen jurists, relatives of the detainees, representatives of the Executive, the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Public Defender's Office and the Judicial Branch discussed, an agreement was reached to legislate and then present it to the Senate.

The spokesman of the National Assembly of Relatives of Political Prisoners of Chile, Jaime Fuentes, from his Twitter account expressed his satisfaction with this first step to achieve justice.

In favor of the freedom of political prisoners, Fuentes urged to continue mobilizing until the Senate chamber approves it and until the last political prisoner returns home, where he should have been.

On July 20, Fuentes said in a press conference outside the Chilean Ministry of Justice that more than 80 people are being held in preventive detention and more than 118 prisoners are under total house arrest.

The initiative had the favorable votes of Alfonso de Urresti, Francisco Huenchumilla and the president of the instance, Pedro Araya, and the rejection of the parliamentarians Luz Ebensperger and Rodrigo Galilea.