The lawyer and deputy (PS), Juan Bustos, announced that he will appeal the ruling of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals in the case of Jaime Aldoney, whose body was thrown into the sea in 1973, after visiting judge Julio Miranda sentenced four retired Navy officers to four years of supervised release, gave suspended sentences to two others involved, and acquitted two more individuals.

Bustos described the sentences as insufficient, stating, "they must be for major imprisonment, as this is a very serious crime." Among those sentenced are Sergio Iván Mendoza Rojas, Patricio Maximiliano Villalobos Lobos, Pedro Pablo Arancibia Solar, and Jaime Urdangarín Romero, as well as retired Rear Admiral Ernesto Hubert von Appen and petty officer Manuel Bush López, who received sentences ranging from 72 days to four years of imprisonment, which they will be able to serve on a suspended basis.

Jaime Aldoney was a journalism student, civil engineer, councilman of Limache, and comptroller of the Compañía de Cervecerías Unidas (CCU) when he was detained by the Carabineros in 1973. According to testimonies from the time, he was taken from the Limache police station by Navy personnel to the El Belloto naval air base—which was under the command of Huber—where he was tortured and his trail was lost.

Partial statute of limitations in the Alsina case The Second Chamber of the Supreme Court confirmed the conviction against Donato López Almarza for the homicide of the Spanish priest Joan Alsina Hurtos, which occurred on September 16, 1973, at the Puente Bulnes in Santiago.

In a split decision, magistrates Alberto Chaigneau, Rubén Ballesteros, Hugo Dolmestch, and associate lawyers Fernando Castro and Domingo Hernández sentenced López Almarza to three years and one day, granting the convicted man the benefit of supervised release.

The sentence applies the "partial statute of limitations" (media prescripción), provided for in Article 103 of the Penal Code, to reduce the second-instance conviction that had sentenced López Almarza to 5 years and one day of imprisonment, without any benefits. Magistrate Ballesteros was in favor of applying the statute of limitations in favor of the convicted man.

Source: November 29, 2007, La Nación

After a year of investigation, special jurisdiction judge Gabriela Corti yesterday initiated proceedings against five retired Navy officers and one civilian as alleged perpetrators of the aggravated kidnapping of engineer Jaime Aldoney (PS), who has been a forcibly disappeared person since September 12, 1973.

The case is emblematic for human rights groups in the Fifth Region, as it is one of the few crimes in which Navy personnel are linked to the execution. It also impacts the Navy because, unlike the Army and the FACh (Air Force), it only had a couple of retired officers prosecuted for human rights violations, related to actions of the Comando Conjunto.

Those charged yesterday are retired Rear Admiral Ernesto Huber Von Appen, retired lieutenants Sergio Iván Mendoza Rojas, Patricio Maximiliano Villalobos Lobos, Pedro Pablo Arancibia Solar, and Jaime Ondargarín Romero, and former corporal Manuel Bush López, a current official of the Municipality of Quilpué.

The former uniformed officers were transported yesterday under the custody of Navy officials and in a vehicle belonging to that institution to the Limache Criminal Court, where they were notified by the magistrate of the indictment.

The deputies and plaintiff lawyers, Laura Soto (PPD) and Juan Bustos (PS), and the victim's brother, Gabriel Aldoney, director of the Empresa Portuaria de Valparaíso, also arrived at the scene and criticized the Navy for providing "institutional support" to the accused and called on it to cooperate in the case. "We ask that it be the Navy that, in a real gesture toward the country, recognizes the truth and finally tells the family where the remains of Jaime Aldoney are," stated Laura Soto.

In the military branch, there was no desire to comment on the matter yesterday. However, the commander-in-chief, Miguel Angel Vergara—who is currently in Korea—noted last September regarding the potential prosecution of the officers that "if it is concluded that they must be convicted, we regret it, but justice must be served." Support from Senator Arancibia The former commander-in-chief of the Navy, UDI Senator Jorge Arancibia, stated yesterday that the retired officers "as long as they are not found guilty, will have my sympathy, my backing, and my support if necessary." The parliamentarian noted that Rear Admiral Huber "is a friend of mine; I feel a dual sentiment seeing a person of that stature in this situation. I trust that justice will manage to clear up the doubts." Arancibia added that when he was in the Navy, he did everything possible to find more information about Aldoney, but without success. Jaime Aldoney was a journalism student and comptroller of the CCU when he was detained by the Carabineros in 1973. According to testimonies from the time, he was taken from the Limache police station by Navy personnel to the El Belloto naval air base—which was under the command of Huber—where he was tortured and his trail was lost. Witnesses claim to have seen his corpse on September 26 at the morgue of the Hospital Deforme in Valparaíso. In search of his remains, Judge Corti conducted fruitless excavations in Colliguay last year.

Source: June 12, 2003, Tercera

Freedom granted to four prosecuted in the Aldoney case

The First Chamber of the Court of Appeals, in a unanimous ruling, granted provisional release to four of the six people prosecuted for the disappearance of the former CCU comptroller in the Fifth Region, Jaime Aldoney Vargas.

Those who benefited from the judicial resolution are retired Rear Admiral Ernesto Huber Von Appen; retired Navy captains Sergio Mendoza and Patricio Villalobos; and retired petty officer Manuel Buch López.

Meanwhile, the civilian Jaime Undargarín and retired Navy captain Pedro Pablo Arancibia Soler remain in detention. Jaime Aldoney, a socialist militant and civil engineer, was detained on September 12, 1973, in Limache and transferred to the El Belloto naval air base by Navy personnel. There, he was subjected to torture and his trail was lost.

Source: August 25, 2003, El Mostrador

Court releases authors of the crime against former councilman Jaime Aldoney

The Valparaíso Court of Appeals applied such low sentences that the seven convicted individuals will serve them in freedom. The Third Chamber of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals did not apply international criminal law, which declares crimes against humanity to be non-amnestiable and imprescriptible, and released the seven kidnappers of socialist councilman Jaime Aldoney Vargas, whose body was presumably thrown into the sea by the same released Navy officers.

Magistrates Manuel Silva Ibáñez and Gonzalo Morales (majority vote) applied the legal criterion of "partial statute of limitations" and imposed sentences of three years and 541 days against the six retired Navy captains—Patricio Villalobos Lobos, Pedro Arancibia Solar, Jaime Urdangarín Romero, Germán Valdivia Keller, Guillermo Vidal Hurtado, and Sergio Mendoza Rojas—and retired Rear Admiral Ernesto Huber von Appen.

Since the sentences are less than five years and one day, all those sentenced will serve them in freedom. The partial statute of limitations is a "reconciliation" formula, installed two years ago by the Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court, which allows for the application of low sentences to those who committed crimes during the dictatorship.

The sentence was considered "serious and regrettable" by the lawyer for the Ministry of Interior's Human Rights Program, Karina Fernández, a plaintiff in the case: "a type of statute of limitations was applied to human rights violators that allows them to remain free, in a sentence that is absolutely contradictory to the principles of international law." The lawyer told La Nación that "the Navy did not cooperate in the investigation, which makes it even more unjust," and added that "we will file a cassation appeal before the Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court." Jaime Aldoney, former comptroller of the Compañía de Cervecerías Unidas of Limache and brother of the former intendant of Valparaíso, Gabriel Aldoney, was detained after the 1973 military coup and tortured at the El Belloto naval air base, from where he disappeared.

Source: Wednesday, June 10, 2009; La Nación

Supreme Court convicts 6 members of the Navy in the Aldoney case

The Supreme Court issued a final judgment in the investigation into the aggravated kidnapping of Jaime Aldoney Vargas, a journalist and former councilman of Limache, who was executed starting September 12, 1973, from the El Belloto naval air base.

In a split decision, the ministers of the Second Chamber, Nibaldo Segura, Jaime Rodríguez, Rubén Ballesteros, Hugo Dolmestch, and Carlos Künsemüller, determined the sentences, accepting the investigation carried out by the Valparaíso Court of Appeals judge, Julio Miranda Lillo.

The conviction was issued with the dissenting vote of ministers Segura and Ballesteros, who were in favor of accepting the statute of limitations for criminal action. The ruling acquitted two of the eight accused in the case due to a lack of participation in the events: retired Rear Admiral Ernesto Huber Von Appen and retired officer Manuel Buch López.

Five of the other accused were sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment with the benefit of supervised release. They are Navy captains Patricio Villalobos Lobos, Pedro Arancibia Solar, Jaime Urdangarín Romero, and Germán Valdivia Keller.

Captain Guillermo Vidal Hurtado was convicted as an accessory to the same sentence, while retired captain Sergio Mendoza Rojas was given only 4 years, also with supervised release. In the civil aspect, it was determined that the convicted individuals Valdivia Keller, Arancibia Solar, Urdangarín Romero, and Mendoza Rojas must pay joint compensation of $30,000,000 to Gabriel and Iván Aldoney Vargas, brothers of the victim.

Likewise, the lawsuit against the Chilean State was dismissed, accepting the plea of absolute incompetence of the court. In the civil aspect, the decision to accept the exception in favor of the Chilean State was adopted with the dissenting vote of ministers Dolmestch and Künsemüller.

Source: Thursday, May 5, 2011, La Nación