August 31, 2022, 8:17 PM
August 31, 2022, 8:17 PM
The sister-in-law of Peruvian President Pedro Castillo, Yenifer Paredes, was transferred from jail this Wednesday, three days after a judge sent her to preventive detention for 30 months, accused of integrating an alleged network of corruption directed by the president.
Paredes, 26, was transferred to the Chorrillos women’s prison, in the south of Lima, after spending Sunday in the Ancón II prison, in the north of the capital. She was arrested on August 10 and initially she was held in a police station.
A huge retinue of police and press cars followed the closed white van of the National Penitentiary Institute (INPE), which transported Castillo’s sister-in-law from one end of the city to the other, in the afternoon.
INPE confirmed in a tweet that Paredes was sent to the “Anexo Mujeres Chorrillos” prison, the same prison where he spent 16 months in pretrial detention former presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori.
Paredes’ co-defendant, Mayor José Medina, was also transferred from prison this Wednesday, from Ancón I to Ancón II, both located in the same district in northern Lima.
Paredes and the mayor are accused of being part of a corruption network that awarded public works and money laundering contracts, directed by Castillo, according to the prosecution.
The sister-in-law could face a sentence of 23 years, according to the prosecution.
Medina is mayor of the town of Anguía, located in northern Cajamarca, the region from which Castillo’s family hails.
The prosecution says that the sister-in-law and the mayor colluded to irregularly offer and award sanitation works.
Castillo, who defends his innocence and that of his family, faces six investigations by the prosecutionan unprecedented event for an incumbent president in Peru.
However, he cannot be brought to trial because he has immunity until the end of his term, in July 2026.