Chile: Prosecutor applauds preventive prison for priest for sexual abuse



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SANTIAGO DE CHILE .- The prosecutor of the Chilean region of O. Higgins, Emiliano Arias applauded today the preventive prison decreed by the South Country Justice for a Priest charged with alleged sexual abuse of minors and emphasized that his release would be "a danger to society".

"It occurs (pre-trial detention) when there are precedents they accredit the existence of the crimes and, furthermore, there are precedents that make the accused's freedom a danger for society, because of the nature of the crimes, their reiteration, the likely punishment, "Arias explains. Oscar Muñoz could face sentences ranging from 2 years to 1 day and 15 years in prison, on the basis of imputation for sexual abuse of minors and the alleged commission of crime of rape .

"The probable sentence for repeated crimes of sexual abuse is 5 years and 1 day, to which we must add punishment for statutory rape.Here, being very beneficial to the accused, the minimum that we risk is a sentence ranging from 2 years and 1 day to 15 years. "

Muñoz, who was arrested Thursday in Santiago, will remain in jail during the 180-day investigation ordered by the judge is conducted to determine when he committed the crimes for which he was charged this Friday.

The accused, 56, faces a charge of seven cases of sexual abuse. and rape against minors, which is why his arrest was ordered and his transfer to Rancagua, 90 kilometers south of Santiago, where he appeared in court for formalization.

Arias told the journalist that the victims among the abuses probably committed by Muñoz, they keep between them some common elements.

"These are minor victims, with sexual inexperience, who were sexually assaulted at the home of the accused or accused, or, while they were in the care of that last, because of the trust they have created with the victims and their parents. "

He added that in all cases there was a breach of trust, by employing his priestly condition a "clear psychological manipulation" and "abuse of conscience."

"The history of formalization says that the subject enters as a spiritual guide for these children, who are in the middle of their stage of training, and in this way causes them to be the object of crimes of very serious sexual assault, "said Arias.

Muñoz, who was also pastor of the Church of Jesus of Nazareth in the area of ​​Santiago de Estación Central, was self-denounced for abuse before the Pastoral He was separated from his position last January, two weeks before Pope Francisco's visit to Chile.

Last May, the Office of the Prosecutor opened an investigation against him, after making known the facts That would have affected four children, but to date, there have been seven cases, between 2002 and the beginning of the 39; year.

The victims were between 11 and 17 years old; five abused children are religious nephews, another is one of his acolytes and the rest is a young man who was abused in Rancagua in 2004.

It should be noted that Muñoz was in charge of receiving complaints in the archdiocese of Santiago. sexual abuse cases in the church and was also a direct advisor to Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati chief of the Archdiocese.

In this sense, Arias stated that "in the fulfillment of this role, these people knew the system of canonical inquiries within the Catholic Church."

"He knows what to do, what not to do, how to manage himself, how to be able, in short, to ensure his impunity. "

Cases of sexual abuse have shocked the Chilean Catholic Church for years and years. last June, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of five bishops, after 34 members of the Episcopal Conference Chile was offered his positions after being summoned to the Vatican by the pontiff.

EFE / Foto: publimetro.cl
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