The former minister Betssy Chavez has obtained a waiver to be absent from the recent hearing of the oral trial that continues against him along with the former president Pedro Castilloclaiming a poor state of health.
Her technical defense presented the justification, which was validated by the prosecutor in charge of the case, who verified the accused’s illness together with a medical examiner. Despite accepting the absence on this occasion, the prosecutor warned that he will request that Chávez be declared contumacious criminal if you do not show up for the next session.
The judge Norma Carbajal accepted this request, resolving that the accused Betssy Chávez was “exempted for last time“. The magistrate warned that, if she relapses into non-attendance, she will be declared a contumacious offender, which would imply ordering her “corresponding location and capture“according to law.
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What is contumacious offender?
He contumacious criminal is a legal figure that is applied to the accused in a criminal process who, despite having been duly notified and have full knowledge that he must appear, he flatly refuses deliberate and unjustified to appear before the court. In simple terms, it is the accused who decides to turn his back on justice, but in a figurative sense, by evading his procedural responsibility. Peruvian jurisprudence emphasizes that this is a situation of “conscious procedural rebellion”, differentiating it from the “absent inmate”, whose whereabouts are unknown.
Once the judge declares default, the consequences are immediate and drastic. The most important is the issuance of a location order and compulsive capture against the accused, authorizing the police to arrest him and place him at the disposal of the court so that the process can be resumed. Furthermore, if contumacy is declared during the oral trial, the process is provisionally archived regarding the contumacious, and the period of prescription of the criminal action is suspended. This means that time “stops running” for him, indefinitely prolonging the possibility of being judged as soon as it occurs.
In essence, the declaration of default is the State’s tool to prevent the accused from paralyzing the administration of justice with his non-attendance. Although a public defender is guaranteed to protect your rights, the message is clear: disobedience to the judicial call is responded to by coercion. It is, without a doubt, a game that the accused always ends up losing in the long run.
