The Seventh Chamber of the Court of Appeals of Santiago rejected the order not to innovate presented by lawyer Mario Vargas Cociña. This petition aimed to prevent the State Defense Council (CDE), chaired by Raúl Letelier, from accessing the conversations held between Vargas and the questioned criminal lawyer Luis Hermosilla.
The Court’s refusal implies that, for the moment, the CDE will be able to continue with its access to said conversations. However, this ruling is provisional, since the Court has yet to rule on the merits of the appeal presented by Vargas.
This episode arises after the same court admitted, the day before, an appeal for reconsideration presented by Vargas. In this appeal, Vargas argued that the conversations with Hermosilla covered both professional and personal topics, as well as exchanges of opinions on current affairs.
Vargas stated that these conversations are not related to the events under investigation and are protected by professional secrecy. However, the Public Ministry has Hermosilla’s cell phone, seized as part of the investigation derived from the audio leaked by lawyer Leonarda Villalobos. In said audio, Hermosilla addressed the payment of bribes to officials of Internal Revenue (SII) and the Commission for the Financial Market (CMF).