​

Peruvian prosecutor's office requests 18 months of pre-trial detention against Castillo


​

Lima, December 14 (RHC)-- The Peruvian Prosecutor's Office has requested to the Supreme Court of Preparatory Investigation to order 18 months of preventive imprisonment against the former president of this South American country, Pedro Castillo, and the former chief of the Cabinet, Aníbal Torres.

Castillo and Torres will be investigated for the alleged crime of rebellion and conspiracy, after the former president dissolved the Congress last December 7 and tried to establish an emergency government, after which the Legislative declared his vacancy.

The Judicial Power is expected to evaluate the request for Castillo's preventive detention, which was presented by the Supreme Prosecutor, Uriel Terán, in charge of the office of the Second Transitory Supreme Prosecutor's Office specialized in crimes committed by public officials.

Pedro Castillo is currently in preliminary detention for seven days in the facilities of the Directorate of Special Operations (Diroes), in Lima (capital).  This term will expire this Wednesday afternoon, for which the former president called his followers to demonstrate after midday in the vicinity of the Diroes.

The day before, the Permanent Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court rejected the appeal filed by Castillo's defense to annul his preliminary detention.

However, the president of the Chamber, Judge Cesar San Martin, determined that the teacher and union leader from Cajamarca (north) will serve the seven days of preliminary detention imposed by Judge Juan Carlos Checkley Soria at the request of the Prosecutor's Office.

San Martin considered that the crime of rebellion is not only produced through an armed uprising but can also be configured through the attempt to remove authority from democratic institutions in order to concentrate it in a single power.

For his part, the former Prime Minister of Castillo, Aníbal Torres, rejected last December 10 the accusations of the Prosecutor's Office and announced that he was going underground.

Through Twitter, Torres declared that "the Prosecutor of the Nation (Patricia Benavides), without reason, has denounced me for being part of a criminal organization and disturbing Justice. Now she does it for rebellion and other crimes, just for hearing the presidential message."