After being suspended from his functions, the congressman Freddy Diazin an interview with RPP, rejected be guilty of the charges of sexual assault against him, and asserted that, in order to prove his innocence, he has decided to go to court. He himself voted in favor of the sanctioning measure imposed on him in Parliament for the accusations.
On the other hand, in relation to the complaint that indicates that both he as 9 other congressmen would have been drinking alcohol in the Congress facilities the day these events took place, Díaz accepted the truth of this statement and admitted having committed the crime, although he refused to provide the names of those involved.
“The truth is that, in effect, I began to sip liquor with some congressmen, obviously in the plenary hall (…) As I said in the Hemicycle, I am going to reserve the names, I am not the one to mention those names, I will do it in the appropriate instance to do it. But yes, I was, not only in my office, but also outside it with several congressmen”, declared the parliamentarian.
“I think it is something that should not be repeated and That is precisely why I acquiesced and assumed my responsibility in the Ethics Commission, That is why I told the congressmen present to enforce the norm and that I be sanctioned as it should be,” he added.
He also denied that legislators Jorge Flores (Popular Action), Alfredo Pariona (Free Peru), Janet Rivas (Free Peru) and Jorge Coayla (Democratic Peru), those who opted for abstention during the vote on the sanction against him, are some of the people who were with him drinking alcoholic beverages.
Faced with the possibility of being disbarred, Freddy Díaz stated that this matter must be handled through due process, although he maintains his position of rejecting the accusations of sexual abuse. In addition, he indicated that after the end of his sanction, he aspires to rejoin Parliament.
The process to unseat a congressman
In principle, in order to remove a congressman, it is required that the processing of a complaint be approved, whose admissibility is the responsibility of the Subcommittee on Constitutional Accusations.
From this point, the process passes into the hands of the Standing Commission, which receives a report in this regard and grants a nominal period of 15 days for investigations. After that, a delegate congressman must prepare a resolution taking into consideration the elements found in the preliminary investigation, as well as with the testimonies given by the parties involved.
The drafted text is put to the vote in the Subcommittee on Constitutional Accusations. If, in this case, it is approved in this group, it must be submitted to a new vote in the Permanent Commission, which if he gives the go-ahead again, he will refer the matter to the Plenary Session of Congress, which will finally resolve the lawlessness or not of the parliamentarian in question.
