The Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office requests 35 years in prison against former President Kuczynski for a corruption case

( Spanish) — The Public Ministry of Peru requested 35 years in prison for former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski for alleged money laundering, the state agency Andina reported this Friday.

Prosecutor José Domingo Pérez, who is in charge of the Lava Jato special team —which investigates alleged acts of corruption linked to the Brazilian company Odebrecht and other construction companies to benefit from public works tenders in the country—, presented the accusation against the former president. the agency added.

requested information on this matter from the Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office.

Kuczynski has repeatedly defended his innocence. In an interview with local media, his lawyer Julio Midolo said that the former president is “calm” and that they are waiting for formal notification about the request from the Prosecutor’s Office.

The next step would be the beginning of the accusation control, which is a stage between the accusation and the trial, which will determine if the Prosecutor’s request proceeds.

Kuczynski has been under house arrest since April 2019, when the Judiciary authorized 36 months of preventive detention against him, in the framework of an investigation for alleged money laundering in the case. PPK, as he is also known, has denied the accusations against him.

The investigation against Kuczynski dates back to December 2017, when it was published that he had allegedly been a partner in the company First Capital Partners (FCP), a financial consultancy that would have advised the consortium headed by Odebrecht. At that time, the president denied such a relationship.

At that time, Kuczynski acknowledged that he did advise H2Olmos SA, an Odebrecht company that won the bid for an irrigation project called Olmos.

This scandal cost Kuczynski the Presidency, who resigned in March 2018, before the imminent vote in Congress on a vacancy request against him. After his resignation, the judiciary prohibited him from leaving Peru for 18 months.