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Karl Schembri
As he waits in his Miami prison cell for the Florida Federal Court’s decision about his bleak fate, the past six years must be haunting the son of the cream of the Chilean armada.
Since 1999, when he was still a Navy cadet on board the Chilean Navy’s elite training ship Esmeralda, the 27-year-old and now Lieutenant Hernán Sepúlveda Mery has been declared a fugitive of justice by the Maltese authorities. The Esmeralda, incidentally, is the same four-masted sailing vessel used as a torture ship of communists in the 1973 coup led by General Augusto Pinochet against democratically elected Salvador Allende.
Together with his colleagues Edward Gibbons Fell, John Martin Gajardo, and Cristián Delgado Ramírez, the naval officer has been on Interpol’s wanted list as they stand accused by Malta police of the knifing of Maltese security guard Joseph Spiteri outside the Empire nightclub in Paceville.
Then aged 32, Spiteri was stabbed three times while he tried to stop a fight between Chilean cadets and Maltese nationals in Paceville on the night of 4 August, 1999. He survived the stabbing after intensive therapy, but since then he has been left with the bitter taste of injustice as the implicated sailors were left to sail away from the island on board their training ship, on which they enjoyed diplomatic immunity.
Sepúlveda Mery is the cadet identified by Spiteri as the man who stabbed him and held to be the prime suspect by the Maltese prosecutors, who accuse the Chilean of attempted murder with the collaboration of the three other officers.
But the Chilean government has taken great care to protect its privileged officers, to the point of exonerating them completely despite the official charge sheet and international arrest warrant issued after the Malta police investigations. Sepúlveda Mery is the son of a captain of the Chilean navy. Another wanted officer, Gibbons Fell, is the son of the Navy’s General Secretary.
On that fateful night, the cadets had escaped from the scene of the crime by taking a taxi to the Grand Harbour, where their sailing ship was berthed. Once on board, they were ordered by the captain not to leave the Esmeralda, which is effectively a floating embassy internationally considered as Chilean territory.
This meant that the police did not have the jurisdiction to arrest the cadets while they were on board the navy vessel during its stay in Valletta. The international arrest warrant, issued three months after the departure of the Esmeralda, raised the expectations of the police and of Mr Spiteri as it gave Interpol the authorisation to arrest the sailors upon their disembarkation during the itinerary of the Esmeralda in the Mediterranean, but the sailors only disembarked at their final port of call in Valparaiso – the Chilean Navy’s headquarters.
The Malta incident had triggered a storm of criticism in Chile, with the press and Opposition dubbing it as the biggest scandal to hit the Naval establishment in decades. The case even made headlines on the conservative daily El Mercurio, an influential broadsheet with editorial loyalty to the Chilean military since General Augusto Pinochet’s infamous coup.
Six years since his slick escape, Sepúlveda Mery has learnt that the case was all but forgotten. Just after his honeymoon in the US, 10 days since his wedding, he was detained by Miami police last Sunday as he was about to embark on a flight back to Santiago, following instructions from Interpol issued after consultation with Malta.
In Chile, the military establishment and the officer’s family reacted with great surprise to the news of the arrest, with La Tercera reporting Admiral Rodolfo Codina’s hope that “an extrajudicial agreement” is reached with Malta to avoid the extradition of his lieutenant.
According to Admiral Codina, the navy had checked Sepúlveda Mery’s legal situation prior to his departure to the US, and he did not appear on Interpol’s list of fugitives. But once in Miami, the US established contact with Malta since both countries have an extradition agreement in place since 1935. Police sources confirmed to MaltaToday that a request was filed for the officer’s extradition to Malta.
The Chileans are now hoping that diplomacy with Malta will pave the way for their elite newlywed to be allowed to return to his country.
On the other hand, with his chest permanently scarred, Spiteri’s hopes have now been raised although he remains cautious and says he prefers not to comment until more news arrives about the case. The extradition proceedings may take up to a year, possibly more, during which Sepúlveda Mery will remain in detention.
A year after the incident, Spiteri had expressed his anger at the Maltese authorities for leaving him in the dark about his case and for failing to start extradition procedures with the Chilean courts.
“No one ever contacted me about this case,” he had said. “Not even one person from the authorities called to inform me how the things were going, whether there were any developments or just to see how I was. Of course I feel very hurt. They left those Chileans leave the Maltese harbour, but nobody did anything for a Maltese citizen, and you know why? Because I’m a nobody.”
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
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