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Lima (AFP) – An appeals court in Peru on Friday ratified the 36-month pretrial detention for alleged corruption imposed on former President Pedro Castillo, detained since December on charges of rebellion after his failed self-coup.
The 53-year-old former president must remain behind bars until December 2025, while the Prosecutor’s Office advances in the investigations and decides his eventual call to trial for both crimes.
“The Permanent Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, chaired by César San Martín Castro, ratifies 36 months of preventive detention issued against former president Pedro Castillo Terrones, investigated for the alleged crime of criminal organization and others,” said the Judiciary on the social network Twitter.
Permanent Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, chaired by César San Martín Castro, ratifies 36 months of preventive detention issued against former President Pedro Castillo Terrones, investigated for the alleged crime of criminal organization and others. pic.twitter.com/93sPzSb8FT
– Judicial Power Peru (@Poder_Judicial_) March 31, 2023
On March 10, in a virtual hearing, Judge Juan Carlos Checkley ordered the second preventive sanction against Castillo, after having given him 18 months for attempting to unconstitutionally dissolve Congress, intervene in the judicial system, and rule by decree.
The former president had then announced that he would appeal the judicial decision.
Due to the corruption case, two former Castillo ministers are also serving pretrial detention.
After his unsuccessful maneuver on December 7, Castillo was dismissed and taken that day to the Barbadillo prison, a mini-prison for senior officials within the headquarters of the Special Police Operations Directorate, east of Lima.
His fall deepened the political crisis in Peru with protests that leave at least fifty dead, including a policeman and six soldiers.
Castillo, a leftist and teachers union leader, denies the corruption charges and maintains that he is “unfairly kidnapped.”
The thesis of the Prosecutor’s Office is that Castillo directed from the presidency a network of corruption of asset laundering and the awarding of public works contracts made up of his family and political environment.
The former Peruvian president, who had been elected in 2021 to rule until 2026, was ousted when he had been in power for 17 months.
Its vice president, Dina Boluarte, took office in the midst of demonstrations demanding her resignation, the closure of Congress and the early elections.
