The President of Peru, Pedro Castillo, arrived this Friday at the headquarters of the National Prosecutor’s Office to be questioned by the attorney general, Pablo Sánchezas part of the preliminary investigation that follows an alleged case of corruption in the current government.
(Read: Peru: Prosecutor’s Office asks to investigate Castillo as “leader of a criminal group”)
“In order to clarify the complaints and speculations against me, today I will go to the National Prosecutor’s Office in an act of transparency with the people and collaboration with the justice system,” Castillo said on Twitter.
The leftist president left the government palace on foot at around 9:45 a.m. locals and walked about eight blocks, raising a hand to greet pedestrians, accompanied by advisers and some thirty plainclothes escorts and uniformed police officers, AFP journalists observed.
In order to clarify the complaints and speculations against me, today I will go to the Attorney General’s Office in an act of transparency with the people and collaboration with the justice system.
– Pedro Castillo Terrones (@PedroCastilloTe) June 17, 2022
The president entered the prosecutor’s office about 15 minutes later without making a statement to the press. Outside, a dozen opposition demonstrators were waiting for him, shouting slogans against him.
The head of state, who was escorted by a large police contingent, began to offer his statements in strict privacy as part of the investigation of the concession for the construction of a bridge in the country’s Amazon, which the Prosecutor’s Office considers could have been granted to an alleged criminal organization entrenched in the current Executive.
The Prosecutor’s Office argues that the president is the leader of that organization, allegedly in charge of organizing the awarding of works to businessmen who collaborated with his electoral campaign last year and of appointing officials related to that task.
The reason for the investigation
The prosecution investigates Castillo for alleged crimes of influence peddlingcriminal organization and collusion aggravated by a cause that involves their political and family environment.
This is the investigation into the “Puente Tarata III” consortium, which seeks to determine if a former Minister of Transport, six legislators, a former Secretary General of the Presidency and two nephews of Castillo were part of an alleged criminal network headed by the president to grant a contract of public works.
The prosecution summoned Castillo while those under investigation around him are in hiding after issuing a preventive detention order against them. Police are offering rewards of between $4,000 and $13,300 for his arrest.
Peruvian law prevents the prosecution of a president while he is in power, but does not advance the investigations against him, the prosecution maintains. Castillo ends his term in July 2026.
Meanwhile, the Oversight and Comptrollership Commission of Congress agreed on Thursday night to summon Castillo to appear on June 21 for the same case that the prosecution is investigating. Castillo, a 52-year-old rural teacher, had announced on Sunday that he would attend the summons from prosecutor Samuel Rojas and had reiterated it this Thursday.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from EFE and AFP
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