Crisis in Peru: Pedro Castillo demands his freedom and says he is jailed for ‘political revenge’

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Former Peruvian president Pedro Castillo said on Wednesday that his preventive detention was unjust, “political revenge”, and asked for his release during an appeal hearing asking for his defense against the judicial resolution ordering 18 months of arrest for attempting to dissolve Congress and rule by decree.

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“I ask you to reflect and see how this unjust pre-trial detention that was imposed on me has only served to polarize our country. Everything that is done against me and the whole process is nothing but political revenge,” he said Castillo from prison. intervening remotely in the hearing.

The former president denied committing any crime when he attempted to carry out a self-coup on December 7.

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The former rural teacher and union leader who assumed the presidency in July 2021 has been under arrest since December 7, when he was arrested after announcing in a speech the dissolution of Congress and that he would henceforth rule by decree, intervene in the Judiciary and convene in constituent Assembly. His failed attempt was seen as a coup.

On December 15, Chief Justice Juan Carlos Checkley ordered Castillo into custody after noting that he had found “substantial evidence” of the alleged commission of the crimes of rebellion, criminal association, abuse of authority and serious disturbance of the public peace.

Defense of the former president

This Wednesday, the former president said he had “never” committed a crime of rebellion, had not taken up arms, and had not even called anyone to take up arms.

“But I have to say that the one who has risen up in arms to end the lives of more than 30 Peruvians is the current government,” he said of the 28 people who died in the protests that have taken place in the country in recent weeks, after Dina Boluarte, who was Castillo’s deputy, took over.

In these protests, which began tentatively on December 7 and spread to different parts of the country on December 11, the protesters have several demands that include their release, the resignation of President Dina Boluarte, the progress of the general elections and the demand for a assembly electorate.

In a bid to mitigate the crisis, Parliament passed a week ago to bring forward the 2026 general election to April 2024.

“Your Judge, I have not committed any crime of conspiracy but who conspired is the Congress of the Republic and other institutions to put together a plan for the fall of my government through successive requests for vacancy (dismissal) and other tricks,” he mused.

Castillo has called for the hatred to cease and has asked for his freedom because he is “a just man”.

He has said this even to this day it is uncommunicated and that he did not have telephone access to call his family and asked that he be given the opportunity to speak with his parents and family.

The Permanent Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Peru examines this Wednesday the appeal filed by Castillo against the judicial resolution that ordered 18 months of preventive detention issued against him.

At the hearing, the defense of the former president, Wilfredo Robles, affirmed that the prosecutor’s arguments are “disproportionate” and lacking in specificity and defended that he is released from prison and continues the investigation against him with a restricted appearance order .

Source: EFE

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Source: Clarin

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