During the second day of the hearing to formalize charges against Mayor Daniel Jadue (PC), the defense lawyer of the communal head of Recoleta, Ramón Sepúlveda, alluded to the statements of other mayors who are members of the Chilean Association of Municipalities with Popular Pharmacies (Achifarp), especially highlighting the words of the mayor of Valparaíso, Jorge Sharp.
The North Central Metropolitan Prosecutor’s Office accuses Jadue and seven other defendants of bribery, treasury fraud, fraud and unfair administration, related to the purchase and sale of supplies during the Covid-19 pandemic by Achifarp, of which Jadue is legal representative.
On Wednesday, during the first hearing, the Prosecutor’s Office requested the Third Guarantee Court of Santiago to impose the precautionary measure of preventive detention against Jadue. The trial has been extended until this Thursday and is expected to conclude this Friday.
During today’s hearing, the Prosecutor’s Office presented testimonies from the mayors of Puente Alto, Germán Codina (Renovación Nacional); from Huechuraba, Carlos Cuadrado (PPD); and from Valparaíso, Jorge Sharp (independent), who were part of the Achifarp board. Codina was the second vice president, Cuadrado served as general secretary and Sharp served as treasurer.
“I’m not saying they’re going to chase him, but…”
In his statement before the Prosecutor’s Office, Sharp assured: “In my capacity as treasurer, I did not have access to the bank accounts (…) The person who hired the advisors and executive secretaries was – I understand – Mayor Jadue.”
However, Jadue’s defense lawyer, Ramón Sepúlveda, stated during the hearing: “The Prosecutor’s Office, based on a prejudice, that this (Achifarp) was a toy of the mayor of Recoleta, has forgotten all the other directors. He summons them to testify, the treasurer who has administrative responsibilities in public deeds appears.”
In the words of the Recoleta councilor’s defender, Mayor Sharp says: “‘I never knew anything, I never did anything, it’s not my responsibility,’ and the Prosecutor’s Office says: ‘Okay, we don’t have to personally persecute that director.’ “I’m not saying that they are persecuting him, (but) we cannot point out that Mayor Jadue knew everything, did everything, and hold him responsible for each of the actions of this association.”
For his part, the plaintiff lawyer Daniel Martorell, representative of the State Defense Council (CDE), stressed that “corruption has no political color.” When recalling the case of the former mayor of Maipú Cathy Barriga, also formalized for crimes of treasury fraud and forgery and/or malicious use of a public instrument, Martorell highlighted that “the decisions of the Council are rigorously studied from a professional point of view and never “They are contaminated with reasons of a political nature.”
Daniel Jadue’s formalization hearing will continue tomorrow, Friday, at 9:00 a.m., which would be the third and last day of this judicial process.