Santiago court to review SQM case trial annulment bid

The Santiago Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear arguments on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, regarding requests to annul the trial in the SQM political financing case. The Eleventh Chamber of the court will evaluate appeals seeking to overturn the acquittal of all eight defendants, an investigation that originally began in 2014 over alleged illegal campaign funding.

In early September, the Public Prosecutor's Office, the State Defense Council (CDE), and the Internal Taxes Service (SII) filed nullity motions after the Third Oral Criminal Court of Santiago issued its full ruling. The original verdict, delivered in August of the previous year, cleared former SQM CEO Patricio Contesse, former Economy Minister Pablo Longueira, and former presidential candidate Marco Enríquez-Ominami, among others.

Valparaíso Regional Prosecutor Claudia Perivancich requested three hours to present arguments for the prosecution, citing the vast scale of the proceedings. The oral trial ran from March 14, 2023, to October 22, 2025, generating a sentence of roughly 5,000 pages, an evidentiary transcript exceeding 8,000 pages, and an annulment petition spanning about 230 pages. Defense presentations are expected to take between 30 and 45 minutes.

Judge Patricio Martínez recused himself from the case due to family proximity to Contesse. Additionally, the appellate court previously rejected an attempt filed on September 2 by defense teams to declare the nullity motions inadmissible, confirming that the state appeals met legal requirements for review.