The Prosecutor’s Office responded through a Twitter post to a message to the Nation from Pedro Castillo, stating that “the prosecutors investigate based on facts and evidence, with objectivity and respecting due process.” Before, the president had asserted that the Prosecutor’s Office was participating in a plot against him, accelerating the complaints to remove him from his position.
During a message to the Nation given on October 19, the president called “on human rights organizations to intercede for detainees whose right to be presumed innocent is not respected.” According to him, they were “instrumentalizing new forms of psychological torture with preliminary arrests and preventive detentions to obtain accusations against me and my government.”
Faced with these clear accusations, the Prosecutor’s Office responded by clarifying that “the main constitutional function of the Public Ministry is the prosecution of crime” and that “the functioning of the justice system with respect to the constitution and international treaties are the basis of the rule of law.” Therefore, they showed their rejection of “any attempt to politicize justice.”
According to the president, the speed of the complaints against him is due to a plot by the Public Ministry with other institutions. As proof of this, she recalled the words of the National Prosecutor, Patricia Benavides, to the Congress of the Republic: “By telling them in her message that she has already done her job and now it’s up to Parliament to do its thing, highlighting the subtle consultation for the plot”, said Castillo.
In response, the Public Ministry stated that “prosecutors investigate based on facts and evidence, objectively and respecting due process” and that these guidelines are supported by the Board of Supreme Prosecutors, presidents of the Board of Prosecutors at the and national coordinators of the Specialized Prosecutors’ Offices.
