According to the Legal Medical Service (SML), psychiatrist and former UDI senator Jacqueline van Rysselberghe, hired to carry out expert reports in criminal cases between 2018 and 2022, should not have been assigned to a case of human rights violations during the dictatorship. For this reason, the SML opened an administrative summary on May 29 to clarify the irregular assignment.
Today, the minister for cases of human rights violations, Carlos Aldana, declared the expert opinion carried out by JVR invalid. This expert opinion had been crucial to argue the mental insanity of José Otarola, sentenced to 15 years in prison for his participation in the homicides of the Laja-San Rosendo massacre, a crime against humanity.
Judge Aldana accepted the arguments of the plaintiff lawyers, who questioned van Rysselberghe’s impartiality, based on his public statements and his political affiliation as a UDI activist. On multiple occasions, van Rysselberghe had expressed his opinion that terminally ill convicts should have their sentences commuted, allowing them to serve their sentences at home.
In an eight-page document, the judge detailed that the psychiatrist should have disqualified herself from carrying out the examination due to her obvious bias, and by not doing so, her report lacks any validity. Minister Aldana’s decision implies that a new expert must be appointed to prepare an impartial report on Otarola’s mental state.
As stated Radio Bío Bío, Given the controversy generated by the invalid expert opinion, the Legal Medical Service decided not to renew Jacqueline van Rysselberghe’s service contract, which will expire on June 30. The former senator was hired via direct treatment in April of this year.
It is worth mentioning that, in April, the Government of President Gabriel Boric de-dramatized the hiring of JVR in the SML. The presidential delegate of Biobío, Daniela Dresdner, prioritized technical capacity over the political party.
Today, consulted by the regional press, Dresdner pointed out the seriousness of the fact that the psychiatrist has been allowed to carry out a job that did not correspond to her, but justifying her hiring despite her political color.