MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean human rights organizations demand Chief Justice's resignation

Human rights activist Alicia Lira wants Chilean Chief Justice to resign

Hugo Dolmestch, Chief Justice of the Chilean Supreme Court, must resign because “he does not respect international humanitarian law,” according to Alicia Lira, head of the Association of Relatives of Political Executees.

 “Mr. Dolmestch is in favor of giving prison benefits to those convicted of crimes against humanity committed in dictatorship, it is unacceptable that someone with such a harmful opinion should exercise that position,” Lira said Monday at a demonstration staged by several human rights organizations before the Courts building in Santiago.

Lira made these statements after the Judge told a newspaper on Saturday that those convicted of human rights violations could also enjoy being released on parole, which “renders us powerless with indignation,” because it “would set a negative precedent, as it is to ignore any international agreement that has to do with the perpetrators in crimes against humanity,” said Lira.

She also pointed out that during the 17 years that Chile lived under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), “the judiciary was an accomplice of state terrorism.”

“After all the horror, fortunately this generation has been changing and claiming, and today, we see an interview that is not consistent with what the judiciary really should do,” she said.