The judge Wilson Verastegui Galvez officially left the Cocktails Casein which compliance with the recent ruling of the Constitutional Court (TC) which quashed the charges against Keiko Fujimori for money laundering. The decision was made after the publication of a report that questioned his impartiality due to a friendly relationship with the leader of Alliance for Progress, César Acuña.
In its resolution, issued this October 27, The magistrate acknowledged having known Acuñaalthough he denied maintaining a “great friendship” with him. Despite this, he considered that the dissemination of this information could affect public confidence in his judicial actions, which is why he chose to withdraw from the process “out of decorum” and to guarantee the transparency of the ruling.
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The decision occurs at a key moment, since the T.C. ordered his office to resolve the legal situation of the leader of Popular Forceafter declaring the procedural acts and the tax accusation against him null and void. Now, the case must be reassigned to another preparatory investigation judge.
The file will be sent to the Single Parties Table of the National Superior Court for redistribution, while the Criminal Appeals Chamber will review the inhibition to validate the procedure. The resolution also provides for incorporating as annexes the journalistic publications that motivated the decision.
Newspaper report questioned the judge’s impartiality
The report that led to the judge’s inhibition was published by the weekly newspaper ‘Hildebrandt on his thirteenth’ last October 24. In it, an image of Wilson Verastegui next to Cesar Acunaaccompanied by headlines that suggested a close link between the two. The media questioned that the judge, in charge of whether or not to comply with the ruling of the T.C. in favor of Keiko Fujimorihad alleged ties to another politician investigated for money laundering.
The information was replicated by other media, which amplified the controversy and led the magistrate to evaluate its permanence in the case. In his statement, Verastegui Galvez rejected the existence of an “alliance” or “close friendship” with Acunaspecifying that he only knew his family through an old relationship between his late father and the parents of the PPP leader.
However, The judge admitted that the publications could generate a negative perception in the public opinionaffecting the “objective impartiality” required by the judicial system. For this reason, he decided to recuse himself in application of article 53 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which allows a judge to withdraw when there are reasons that compromise his independence.
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Cocktails Case: departure of Judge Wilson Verástegi could delay compliance with the TC ruling
The departure of Wilson Verastegui implies that another magistrate must be in charge of executing the sentence of the Constitutional Courtwhich ordered the accusations against Keiko Fujimori and resolve your legal situation. With this change, compliance with the ruling could be delayed, which had already generated criticism for alleged interference by the T.C. in the powers of the Judiciary and the Prosecutor’s Office.
He Cocktails Case investigates alleged illicit contributions to presidential campaigns Popular Force in 2011 and 2016, coming from entrepreneurs and companies such as Odebrecht. Although he T.C. declared the nullity of previous judicial and fiscal decisions, the Public Ministry has warned that it will seek to reopen the investigations under new procedural figures.
The judge also ordered the formation of an incident with the corresponding procedural pieces, attaching the journalistic publication that motivated his decision, notifying the procedural subjects and ordering the court specialist to execute what was resolved on the day; These measures make the separation official and establish the immediate steps in the Cocktails case.
