Chile imposes six years in prison for Mapuche activist Emilio Berkhoff of Weichán Auka Mapu

Emilio Berkofff remains in pre-trial detention in Lebu Prison awaiting further investigation. Once the sentence is declared final, enforcement will begin in the same prison in the Biobío Region. He will have to serve a sentence of three years and one day in prison as the perpetrator of the crime of theft with intimidation and another of three years and one day in prison for the crime of arson.

The Mapuche activist and former member of the Arauco Malleco Coordinator Emilio Berkhoff Jerez was sentenced to two years and two days in total, with a total of six years and two days in prison, in addition to the payment of two monthly tax units. Berkoff left the CAM to join Weichán Auka Mapu (WAM) (which in Mapudungun means Rebel Territory Fight).

The charges against him relate to a fact that occurred on May 30, 2020, when a group of subjects broke into a road maintenance job in Lumaco to address the victims of initials R.C.B. , A.M.S. , M.H.A. and Q.S.S. among other workers, intimidating them with firearms and forcing them into a forest. The workers had to lie on the ground and stay there while they were targeted.