Arenas is released but must remain under legal supervision

SANTIAGO.-  The former director of the Civil Registry, Guillermo Arenas, has been allowed to go free while awaiting trial after he was charged with 153 counts of public fraud, equal to 236 million pesos, by the Seventh Penalty Court.  Although Arenas is no longer being held in custody, he has been prohibited from leaving the country and must check in with authorities every two weeks.

After a very long hearing, the judge in the case approved the evidence presented by Public Prosecutor Alejandra Godoy regarding two contracts that were signed in 2006 and 2007 with the Universidad de Santiago de Chile (USACh) for a total of $ 400 million pesos.  The documents were supposedly part of a process to purchase Integrated Technology Services and redesign the Studies Center.

The reports however were never carried out.  Furthermore, one of them was found to have been copied and pasted from another internal document generated by Civil Registry officials and had only been stamped by the USACh authority at the time, former dean Ulbaldo Zúñiga.

Face with the evidence, the judge ruled that there was sufficient indication that a financial crime had occurred and that Arenas had participated.