The setting of the proceedings against the Ex-doctor of the Colonia Dignidad met with victims ‘ associations and families of some fierce criticism. They complain of shortcomings in the investigation and a climate of impunity.
The former doctor of the Colonia Dignidad, Hartmut Hopp (archive image)
With dismay and incomprehension attorneys and experts in Chile have responded to the decision by the German justice in the case of Hartmut Hopp. The public Prosecutor’s office in Krefeld, there is no clear evidence I can against the former doctor of the Colonia Dignidad hardening, therefore, you completed the procedure this week that since 2011, the ongoing investigation. Hopp was considered the right-Hand man of Paul Schaefer, the 2010 Chilean prison deceased founder and leader of the cult-like settlement community in Chile. The Colonia Dignidad served during the military dictatorship in Chile as a torture center of the secret service. But also because of further there, committed crimes, such as sexual abuse and illegal arms trade, the sectoral settlement made the headlines.
Of all the now 75-Year-old Hopp wants to have known until recently. Now the process has been set against him – as the last of a total of twelve procedures initiated by the German justice, at various times, against members of the Colonia Dignidad. In the case of Hopp, the Prosecutor’s office of Krefeld had procedures, among other things, documents from the Chilean investigation, and from the secret archives of the Colonia Dignidad evaluated, in addition, Complainant had been heard, it said. The results obtained had not been sufficient to Hopp to indict in accordance with German law.
Lawyer Petra Schlagenhauf: “The prosecution has never made the effort statements”.
“This decision is unacceptable,” said Petra Schlagenhauf, a lawyer of the victims, compared to the DW. “The prosecution has no interest in the matter. I have named a number of witnesses, the Hopps involvement in the crimes, can occupy, but they have never made the effort, these statements are to be incorporated,” said the lawyer. This attorney steel said, you’ve interviewed all the “promising” witnesses. Just because someone was a member of the Colonia Dignidad, he could not say something to the Tatvorwürfen. In addition, work overload and delays in the cooperation with the Chilean justice would have delayed the procedure, Schlagenhauf, this could be a reason, the process is simple.
Charges against Hopp
The proceedings against Hartmut Hopp were in the death and Disappearance of political prisoners during the time of the Chilean military dictatorship, the Administering of psychotropic drugs and the complicity in cases of child abuse by the founder of the sect Paul Schaefer.
Also, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) based in Berlin, had filed a lawsuit against Hopp, in his complicity in child abuse, was accused. For this purpose, Hopp in Chile, was sentenced to five years in prison. The doctor sat down directly after the verdict in 2011, after Germany.
A Delegation of German lawyers during their visit to the Colonia Dignidad in April 2018
“I don’t know what the various prosecutors in the seven and a half years of the procedure,” says Jan Stehle, employees at the research and documentation centre Chile-Latin America (FDCL) in Berlin. “They say they have thoroughly investigated, but this is not the case. It is a case of justice denial in the face of monstrous, systematic crimes, which have claimed over the decades, hundreds of Victims. But for the judiciary in North Rhine-Westphalia, there seems to be no perpetrators,” says Stehle.
“Inability coupled with bureaucracy”
Against Hartmut Hopp was determined over a period of 30 years: from 1988 to 2010 at the Bonn public Prosecutor due to witness statements of several former residents of the Colonia Dignidad, and from 2011 to 2019, in Krefeld, Germany. “This judicial scandal shows that perpetrators now in Germany secure can feel,” says Stehle. He regretted that “many of the victims died in the course of these lengthy pseudo-investigation, and without justice.”
In a joint statement, the ECCHR and Schlagenhauf stress steal, that dealing with the crimes of the Colonia Dignidad was a dark Chapter in the history of the German judiciary. Those Affected are stunned and your trust in the German judiciary has been shaken, so the joint press release.
Rally in front of the house of Hartmut Hopp in Krefeld in June 2018.
While the lawyers in Germany to explore further legal possibilities, there are increasingly critical voices from Chile. Hernán Fernández, a lawyer for the victims of Colonia Dignidad, considers the decision of the Krefeld Prosecutor’s office for a “Prime example of inability coupled with bureaucracy”, and adds that “all criminal and mafia-like organisations have to get the message that only the leader of the alone culprit”. Fernández deplores the fact that Germany “has to weigh, in spite of its use against child abuse, murder, and sex crimes in other countries, in the case of the Colonia Dignidad”.
Also, Margarita Romero, President of the Association of relatives and victims of Colonia Dignidad, rejects the setting of the procedure in Germany: “Hopp was not only involved in the crimes against his own citizens within the Colonia Dignidad, but also in the torture and Disappearance of political prisoners of the Pinochet dictatorship. Germany sets a very bad sign for the impunity by prosecuting these serious crimes and violations of human rights”.