The recent discovered chats between the congresswoman Kelly Portalatino from Peru Libre and the fugitive Vladimir Cerron They would indicate that the parliamentarian had known the location of the former regional governor of Junín. The Sunday program “Panorama” reported that Portalatino was the one who alerted Cerrón to change his residence and that she also advised him to talk through the Telegram application.
In view of this, the Public ministrythrough The Second Supreme Criminal Prosecutor’s Office decided to open a preliminary investigation against Portalatino for the possible crime of personal concealmentLa República spoke with criminal lawyer Benji Espinoza, who explained that there are two solutions to the case of the former Minister of Health.
Portalatino could avoid charges if she proves to have a romantic relationship with Vladimir Cerrón
According to the criminal lawyer, if Portalatino’s defense argues that the parliamentarian, in fact, has a romantic relationship with Cerrón, in that case, there would be a figure called an excuse for acquittal. “If I cover up for my brother, my father, my partner, there is a crime, but I am not given any punishment because there is an excuse for acquittal,” he explains.
In that case, he specifies that “the defense’s procedure is to request the case be dismissed, alleging the excuse of acquittal that there is no cover-up between couples.”
Portalatino could face a sentence of up to 6 years of preventive detention
Espinoza indicated that if it is not proven that they are in a romantic relationship, the parliamentarian Portalatino could receive a sentence of 3 to 6 years of imprisonment, according to article 404 of the Penal Code. He added that she is not eligible for the aggravating circumstance because this only applies when the public official is in charge of the custody of the investigation of the case, that is, she would have to be a judge, prosecutor or police officer in the Cerrón case.
It should be noted that the lawyer emphasizes that to verify this, the Prosecutor’s Office must continue with the investigations because “printouts or screenshots of WhatsApp chats are of no use, what they need is the source, the cell phone where the communications are recorded or that the communications can be extracted from that cell phone and that the Prosecutor’s Office can prove, through a notary, that these communications come from that cell phone.”
