The Peruvian Judiciary issued a preventive detention for 18 months once morest former President Pedro Castillo, who is being investigated by the Public Ministry for the crimes of attempted rebellion and violating the Constitution.
Supreme Judge Juan Carlos Checkley issued this Thursday 18 months of preventive detention for the former Peruvian president Pedro Castillowhile he is being investigated for the crimes of rebellion and conspiracy for the failed self-coup d’état on December 7.
“Issuing pretrial detention for a period of 18 months once morest the accused Pedro Castillo (…) who is under a warrant of preliminary detention that runs from December 7, 2022 to June 6, 2024.Checkley read following a legal presentation that lasted for more than two hours.
In this way, it accepted the request made by the Prosecutor’s Office, which had considered that “There is a procedural period of escape” and in which he had a specific weight that, minutes before his dismissal, he had tried to go to the Mexican Embassy in Lima to request asylum.
The former prime minister and Castillo’s legal adviser, Aníbal Torres, has been included in the prosecutor’s request, and it was presented following the Judiciary authorized the request of the Public Ministry to initiate the preparatory investigation of Castillo.
However, the judge did not grant that request and instead imposed a “restricted appearance order.”
Castillo will be investigated as the alleged co-perpetrator of the crimes of rebellion and conspiracy, as well as the alleged perpetrator of the crimes of abuse of authority and serious disturbance of public peace.
The investigation has been described as “complex” by the Public Ministry and will last eight months.
Self-coup by Pedro Castillo
Castillo was arrested on December 7 following being dismissed by Congress shortly following he announced the closure of Congress, the formation of an emergency executive, which was to govern by decree and reorganize the justice system, which has been described as mostly as an attempted coup.
Neither Castillo nor any of his lawyers appeared this Thursday at the beginning of the review hearing of the request for preventive detention for 18 months presented by the Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office.
At the beginning of the hearing, convened by Supreme Judge Juan Carlos Checkley, it was reported that Castillo, who is serving preventive arrest, refused to receive notification of the prosecutor’s request.
In that sense, Judge Checkley reported that the ex-governor’s defense would be assumed by the public defender Italo Díaz, since none of his accredited defenders appeared at the hearing.
Supreme Judge Juan Carlos Checkley imposes 18 months of preventive detention once morest former president #PedroCastillounder investigation for rebellion (alternatively, conspiracy for rebellion). pic.twitter.com/DqnLPND2Ka
– Judicial Power Peru (@Poder_Judicial_) December 16, 2022
In this regard, the lawyer Ronald Atencio, one of Castillo’s defenders, reported on Twitter that neither he nor his colleague Raúl Noblecilla were going to participate in the preventive detention hearing.
“There are many arguments that, in conversation with Pedro (Castillo) prompted us to make that decision,” indicated before pointing out that among them is an “illegal and express vacancy (removal).
He added that Congress has also carried out a “lifting of the pre-trial”, to which the ex-governor is entitled, “illegal and express” and that the hearing has also been scheduled “to continue keeping Pedro Castillo Terrones in custody.”
