The Permanent Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court ruled again against the former prosecutor of the Nation Patricia Benavides and declared unfounded the appeal with which he sought to annul the investigation carried out by the Special Team of Prosecutors against Corruption in Power (Efficop) in the Valkyria case and the investigative acts carried out by the supreme prosecutor Delia Espinoza.
To begin, the supreme court warns that the defense of Benavides did not formulate its requests first before the Prosecutor’s Office, as established by the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court. This, the supreme judges say, would be enough to reject the appeal. However, “given the national significance of what was contested, we proceed to examine the matter of the matter in question.”
Thus, the supreme court proceeded to analyze the arguments of the former National Prosecutor one by one.
Benavides reported that the Efficop would have investigated her despite not having the authority to do so because she was a high official with the prerogative of political pretrial. In these cases, the person competent to open an investigation is the holder of the Public Ministry.
However, the supreme judges warn that no rights were violated because the Efficop never opened preliminary investigation against Benavidesbut against his advisors Jaime Villanueva, Miguel Girao and Abel Hurtado.
The special team that led the suspended prosecutor Marita BarretoHe then informed the then Attorney General of the Nation, Juan Carlos Villenaabout the alleged crimes in which he would have incurred Benavides together with his advisors to evaluate whether to initiate preliminary proceedings.
They definitively reject protection of the rights of Patricia Benavides.
Eficcop investigation
The same fate had the complaint of Benavides about the investigative acts of the Efficop. The former prosecutor alleged that these had to be annulled because she was supposedly being investigated illegally. However, this point was rejected by the supreme judges because it was not proven that this had happened.
Added to this, the supreme prosecutor Delia Espinoza indicated that the investigation of Efficop was taken as “criminal news.” That is to say, he did not include them in his investigation as elements of conviction, but rather, based on the “criminal news”, he deployed his own investigative acts in which Benavides’ defense could intervene.
Espinoza has full competence
Patricia Benavides He also insisted that the person who had the authority to investigate it was the then Attorney General, Juan Carlos Villenaand not the supreme prosecutor Delia Espinoza.
The Permanent Criminal Chamber recognized that it was indeed up to Villena being in charge of the case, however, remember that he excused himself from hearing about the investigation because he had the status of a witness, like the supreme prosecutor. Pablo Sanchez.
As you remember, when the Valkyrie case exploded, Villena and Sanchez they demanded Benavides to resign as prosecutor of the Nation, so both were prevented from taking on the case since it would call into question the impartiality of the investigation.
The only supreme prosecutor who did not have any impediment, in January 2024, was Delia Espinozawho returned to the Public Ministry after a season in the National Election Jury (JNE). In this way, the jurisdiction of the magistrate in the investigation is ratified.
