After several months of delay, the constitutional accusation presented by the National Prosecutor, Patricia Benavides, against Pedro Castillo will be debated this Friday in Congress.
The decision was made after the Permanent Commission of Congress approved with 19 votes in favor the final report that recommends constitutionally accusing the ex-president. The document – in which he is accused of crimes of criminal organization, influence peddling and collusion – was prepared by the Avanza País congressman, Diego Bazán, and approved by the Subcommittee on Constitutional Accusations. What corresponds now is that the Plenary of Congress decides whether or not to accuse the former president who two months ago wanted to dissolve him unconstitutionally.
The steps to follow
The former president of the Constitutional Court, Víctor García Toma, pointed out to Peru21 that “what Congress will do is determine if the facts are of a criminal nature, if he is accused of any conduct in relation to these facts, and if there are certain indications that he would have had participation”. Likewise, the constitutionalist said that when Congress approves the constitutional accusation “it orders the Public Ministry to initiate the process (against Castillo) based on the considerations that Congress itself establishes.”
According to the regulations of the Congress, for the Plenary to approve a constitutional accusation, it is necessary that half plus one of the number of members of Congress vote in favor. That is, 66 congressmen at least. However, the regulation states that the members of the Permanent Commission, which is made up of 32 congressmen, will not be able to vote in plenary in proportion to the number of members of each bench, including the president and vice presidents of Congress.
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In statements for Perú21, criminal lawyer Andy Carrión, pointed out that Pedro Castillo still maintains certain prerogatives from when he was president, which prevent the corruption investigation against him from advancing to a next stage. The investigation is currently in the preliminary stage. If Congress decides to approve the constitutional accusation, the Nation’s prosecutor would proceed to initiate the preparatory investigation against the ex-president, Carrión explained.
WHAT MAY COME
Carrión assured that “moving to the next stage allows the Prosecutor’s Office to make a series of requests, for example, the lifting of the secrecy of communications, the lifting of bank secrecy, among others.” Likewise, the criminal lawyer slipped the possibility that the Prosecutor’s Office could even request 36 months of preventive detention for Castillo. That does not sound unreasonable given that he said that “the preparatory investigation usually lasts 2 to 3 years, and he estimated that the trial against the former president vacated for coup plotting would only begin in 4 years.
García Toma y Carrión explained that it should be the Supreme Court that carries out the trial against Castillo once the investigation process is complete.
The detained former president must answer to justice for all the investigations against him for alleged crimes of corruption and, the last one, that ended his government: rebellion and conspiracy.
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