During the night of Tuesday, August 2, President Pedro Castillo spoke through his Twitter account about the recent changes in the makeup of the team of prosecutors in charge of the investigation of the “Cuellos Blancos del Puerto” case.
“The Peruvian people want to know why the prosecutorial investigation team in the case of “The White Necks of the Port” has been dismantled. I am notifying the international community of these very serious events about which many are silent,” said the president.
These statements come at a time when Pedro Castillo is facing an investigation by the Public Ministry for his alleged involvement in acts of corruption, in addition to being under observation for the hypothesis that he is the leader of a criminal organization, in which several members of his closest circle would have been involved.
Previously, the president’s lawyer, Eduardo Pachas, had indicated that the Nation’s prosecutor, Patricia Benavides, would have established as one of her objectives the vacating of Castillo since he assumed the reins of the Public Ministry, an entity that he accused of “watching anything but the rule of law.
“There is no clue here. Since the prosecutor (Patricia Benavides) entered and was sworn in, she said that she was going to remove the President of the Republic (Pedro Castillo). There is no reason, there is no right, there is nothing. There is nothing in the document that makes him the leader of a criminal organization,” Pachas said.
What happened to the prosecution team in the White Collars case?
On July 22, through a resolution published in an extraordinary edition of the official newspaper El Peruano, the restructuring of the team of prosecutors in charge of the investigation of the White Necks of the Port case and derived processes, which involve former members of the extinct National Council of the Judiciary, such as César Hinostroza and Walter Ríos.
In this way, by order of the National Prosecutor, Patricia Benavides, the Supreme Prosecutor Pablo Sánchez Velarde and the Supreme Deputy Fany Quispe Farfán were removed from the case. Both were replaced by Jorge Díaz Cabello, and Franklin Tomy López, respectively.
Likewise, the resignation of Jesús Fernández Alarcón from the First Supreme Transitory Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office was made public, which occurred on Tuesday, July 19, which would have had its roots in alleged disagreements between the Public Ministry and Prosecutor Fernández regarding the trust granted to the supreme deputy Quispe Farfán. After his dismissal, his position was assumed by Isidoro Prado León.