(Lima) Justice in Peru announced on Sunday that it had summoned President Pedro Castillo on June 13 as part of an investigation against him for alleged influence peddling.
Posted at 7:08 p.m.
President Castillo was summoned at 10 a.m., the Peruvian prosecutor’s office said, precisely at the time of a decisive football match for Peru’s qualification for the next World Cup in Qatar this year.
The Peruvian public prosecutor’s office indicated last week that it had widened its investigation against the left-wing president in the so-called “Puente Tarata III” consortium case, in order to determine whether he was at the head of a supposed criminal organization composed a former Minister of Transport, six parliamentarians, a former Secretary General of the Presidency and two of his nephews.
Mr. Castillo then denounced a “political persecution” against him.
A president in Peru cannot be prosecuted during the exercise of his mandate, but the investigations concerning him can go forward. His term ends in July 2026.
A businesswoman, Karelim López, accused the president and his closest entourage, including two of his nephews, of forming a criminal organization to illegally award public contracts.
Herself under investigation, she collaborates with justice in exchange for a reduced sentence in the event that she is convicted by justice.
The scandal erupted when the Peruvian press revealed maneuvers on the part of Mme Lopez for the consortium known as “Puente Tarata II” to win the contract to build a bridge in the Amazon region of San Martin.