Former Interior Minister and retired general of the Peruvian Army, Daniel Urresti, was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in prison as “co-author” of the murder of journalist Hugo Bustíos. The Judiciary determined that the victim was attacked by a military patrol in civilian clothes in the Ayacucho region in 1988.
(Keep reading: Peru: Judge rejects imposing 36 months in prison on Pedro Castillo’s wife).
“Condemning Daniel Urresti as co-perpetrator of the crime against the body and health in the form of murder with the aggravated circumstance of treachery,” said the sentence, issued this morning by the Third Superior National Transitory Settlement Criminal Chamber, made up of judges Juan Carlos Santillán, Francisco Mendoza Ayma and Máximo Maguiña Castro.
Condemning Daniel Urresti as co-author of the crime against the body and health in the form of murder with the aggravated circumstance of treachery
After setting 12 years in prison, the court ordered the internment of Urresti in the prison determined by the National Penitentiary Institute (INPE).
(You may be interested: They order the arrest of the former president of Peru, Alejandro Toledo).
The prosecutor expressed his agreement with the decision of the criminal chamber, while Urresti’s defense announced that he will present an appeal for annulment within the period established by law.
Immediately, National Police (PNP) agents transferred the former minister from the court to the police headquarters where he will remain before being sent to a prison in Lima.
#LAST | The Third Criminal Chamber condemns Daniel Urresti as co-author of the murder of journalist Hugo Bustíos. Twelve years of imprisonment and order internment in a penitentiary establishment. (He will serve his sentence on April 11, 2033). pic.twitter.com/7qdvimFL0m
—Wilber Huacasi (@whuacasi) April 13, 2023
crime against humanity
At the conclusion of a sentence, whose reading lasted for more than 8 hours, it was pointed out that it was based on the aggravating circumstance that it was an officer of the Armed Forces, but it was decided to reduce the 25 years that the Prosecutor’s Office initially requested due to the prolongation of the process.
The court considered that it was a crime against humanity and, therefore, a case “of great complexity”, since it involved the murder “with great cruelty” of Bustíos.
#HugoBustíos The journalist and correspondent for @Caretas he was 40 years old when he was ambushed and killed by soldiers from the Castropampa barracks, Ayacucho. Bustíos was on board a motorcycle with Eduardo Rojas, another colleague, who, injured, managed to hide and witness the events. pic.twitter.com/qsAOArNatb
— Rafael Jimenez O. (@rjimenezoliver) November 24, 2021
He recalled that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) determined that the Peruvian State had violated the rights of the victim’s next of kin “by not having adequately investigated the facts.”Therefore, it recommended that a new process be initiated and those responsible for the crime be punished.
For this reason, in 2008 former Army officers Víctor La Vera Hernández and Amador Vidal Sanbento were sentenced to 17 years and 15 years in prison, respectively.
(Also: Peru: three Castillo ministers will be investigated for self-coup).
The process against Urresti was installed on November 26, 2020, when the Prosecutor’s Office asked to suspend the hearings to negotiate an evidentiary agreement with the defensebut later I continue because the parties “did not reach any agreement”.
🔴 ATTENTION!!! Images of the moment of the reading of the conviction of 12 years in prison against Daniel Urresti, as co-perpetrator of the crime of murder of journalist Hugo Bustíos. pic.twitter.com/S2xK9E4AnO
– Find out Peru (@informateperu) April 13, 2023
In justifying its sentence, the court remarked that it was based “on proven and irremovable facts, some of which are unquestionable” such as that Bustíos was assassinated with firearms by military personnel dressed in civilian clothes.
However, he also remarked that there were contradictions in the statements of witnesses questioned during the trial, among which were versions that indicated that Urresti participated directly in the ambush and others that indicated that that day he did not leave the military barracks where he was stationed.
EFE
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