Peru’s justice system requested 34 years in prison for former president Pedro Castillo, accused of rebellion in an attempt to dissolve Parliament.
This penalty is requested for the former statesman, in addition to dissolving parliament in December 2022 and wanting to “carry out a coup d’état”.
The indictment was handed over to the judge responsible for the case, Juan Carlos Checkley, according to AFP.
Pedro Castillo, 54, a former teacher from rural Peru, elected in June 2021 to head a radical left party, was placed in pre-trial detention until December 2025.
On December 7, 2022, he announced in a message to the nation the dissolution of Parliament and the convening of a Constituent Assembly.
However, abandoned by institutions and the Army, he was dismissed from his duties and immediately detained.
Castillo has always defended his innocence in multiple hearings as “I never took up arms”, he repeated, remembering that his order to dissolve Parliament was not fulfilled.
According to the former head of state, he was fired thanks to an alleged political conspiracy between the elected officials with a right-wing majority in Parliament and the Public Ministry that was investigating him for alleged cases of corruption.
Dismissed after just 17 months in power, he was replaced by his vice-president, Dina Boluarte, whose mandate was challenged in the streets by pro-Castillo protesters.