(CNN Spanish) — Former President Pedro Castillo is accused of rebellion and conspiracy following having announced on Wednesday the dissolution of Congress, which subsequently voted a vacancy motion once morest him. Castillo is far from the only ex-president of Peru facing problems with the law. Here, a review of five cases.
Pedro Castillo (2021 – 2022): accused of rebellion and conspiracy, in the midst of multiple investigations
Congress voted on Wednesday a vacancy motion once morest Castillo, following the former president announced the dissolution of the legislative body and his intention to govern by decree law. Shortly following Castillo was arrested.
A court in Peru evaluated this Thursday the request of the Prosecutor’s Office to be preliminarily detained for seven days, arguing that there is a risk of flight from the country. Castillo’s defense, for its part, denied the accusations of rebellion and conspiracy once morest the president and rejected the accusations of the Prosecutor’s Office.
Castillo has faced a slew of investigations into whether he used his position to benefit himself, his family and his closest allies through influence peddling to obtain favors or preferential treatment, among other allegations.
Castillo has repeatedly denied all the allegations and reiterated his willingness to cooperate with any investigation. He argues that the accusations are the result of a witch hunt once morest him and his family by groups that did not accept his electoral victory.
The former president faces five preliminary criminal investigations into accusations of masterminding corruption schemes while in office. These include the accusation by prosecutors that he led a “criminal network” that interfered with public institutions such as the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Ministry of Housing and Peru’s state oil company to control public bidding processes and benefit companies. specific and close allies.
Prosecutors are also investigating whether the former president led influence-peddling efforts in the process of promoting officers in both the armed forces and the national police.
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018): investigated
Former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski is under house arrest since April 2019, when the Judiciary authorized 36 months of pretrial detention once morest him, in the framework of an investigation for alleged money laundering in the Odebrecht case. PPK, as it is known in Peru, has denied the accusations once morest it.
The investigation once morest Kuczynski dates back to December 2017, when it became known that he had supposedly been a partner of the company First Capital Partners (FCP), a financial consultancy that would have advised the consortium headed by the Brazilian company 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. After his resignation, the Judiciary prohibited him from leaving Peru for 18 months.
Ollanta Humala (2011-2016): first trial for Lava Jato in Peru
In February of this year The oral trial once morest former President Ollanta Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, began in Limathe first of the Lava Jato case in Peru.
The Prosecutor’s Office maintains that the Nationalist Party, for which Ollanta Humala ran for president in 2006 and 2011, allegedly received illicit money from the government of the late Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, as well as contributions from the Brazilian construction company Odebretch.
In both cases the money would have been used to finance both campaigns. For the prosecution, part of this money received was justified through false contributors.
Throughout the tax investigation, both Humala and Heredia have pleaded not guilty to the charges once morest them.
Humala and Heredia are charged with the crime of aggravated money laundering, for which they request 20 years in prison for the former president and 26 years for the former first lady.
Humala and Heredia were imprisoned as of July 2017 for 18 months following a request from the prosecutor’s office while the case was under investigation. At that time, Judge Richard Concepción Carhuancho considered that there were sufficient elements to change the condition of both and send them to jail. Humala was then the first former Peruvian president imprisoned for the Odebrecht case.
Alejandro Toledo (2001 – 2006): with extradition request
A US judge endorsed in 2021 the extradition to Peru of former President Alejandro Toledo, who is accused of corruption. The former president’s lawyer announced at that time that they would file an appeal to try to annul the decision.
According to the Peruvian authorities, Toledo, who ruled the country between 2001 and 2006, would have received up to US$30 million in alleged bribes from the construction company Odebrecht to favor the Brazilian company when doing business in Peru.
In his ruling, the judge who upheld the extradition said that due to the statements of two witnesses “combined with Toledo’s admission in this extradition proceeding that he received approximately $500,000” in bribes, “probable cause” was established that the former president “committed collusion and money laundering.”
It also has another ongoing investigation, the case known as Ecoteva, for the alleged crime of money laundering. According to the Prosecutor’s theory, both cases constitute one single case.
The former president was arrested in July 2019 due to an extradition order that was sent to the United States in May 2018. Toledo is under house arrest in California.
At the time, Toledo denied the accusations and called them political persecution. He went to the United States in 2017.
Alberto Fujimori (1990 – 2000): convicted and in prison for murder
Former President Alberto Fujimori is serving a 25-year prison sentence for the crimes of homicide, serious injuries and aggravated kidnapping, committed during his government. In addition, in 2015 he received another 8 years in prison for the crime of embezzlement.
On Christmas Eve 2017, Fujimori made headlines once more when then-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski granted him a humanitarian pardon. But in 2019 the convicted former president returned to prison following his humanitarian pardon was annulled in October 2018.
His possible release He had a chapter once more this yearwhen the Constitutional Court of Peru gave rise to a writ of habeas corpus in favor of the former president presented by the lawyer Gregorio Parco Alarcón, following which the former president was supposed to leave prison.
Nevertheless, then the Inter-American Court of Human Rights requested the Peruvian State refrain from implementing the ruling of the Constitutional Court.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in April 2019 and updated in December 2022.
