Mapuche leader Jones-Huala gets 9 years in Chilean prison

SANTIAGO – Argentine Mapuche leader Facundo Jones Huala was sentenced Friday to nine years and one day in jail by a Chilean court in Valdivia.

The leader of the Mapuche community Pu Lof in Resistencia de Cushamen received a six-year sentence for arson plus three years and one day for illegal possession of a firearm in the context of the 2013 attack at the Pisu Pisué farm in Río Bueno.

Jones-Huala had been arrested in Argentina in mid-2018 after four years at large and later extradited to Chile to stand trial.

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Of the six people tried for the case, four were acquitted. Besides Jones-Huala, Millaray Huichalaf was convicted as an accomplice.

Following Friday’s ruling, the Prosecutor’s Office has announced the case will be reviewed for a possible nullity appeal since a 15-year jail sentence had been requested for the Mapuche rebel.

Meanwhile, defence attorney Karina Riquelme argued that with the same evidence four people have already been acquitted for this same case.

Court sources reported that Jones-Huala has already served 1,178 days of his sentence by taking into account his incarceration in Argentina while awaiting extradition and in Chile before his conviction.–MercoPress