The Executive and Congress have once again played against the wall and in favor of crime. This time, the government of Dina Boluarte enacted without observing the laws approved in Parliament that, among other things, prevent the preliminary capture of those under investigation if they are not caught in flagrante delicto. That is, they can only be arrested if they are caught red-handed.
LOOK: Prosecutor Delia Espinoza rejects death penalty: “There may be judicial errors”
Boluarte now calls for the death penalty for rapists of minors, but with this rule a rapist cannot be arrested if he is not caught in flagrante delicto. Terrible and monumental inconsistency.
Law No. 32181, published yesterday in the newspaper El Peruano, seemed to be a necessary and timely norm, since it is titled “Provide greater protection to Police personnel” during their fight against the common underworld.
The guideline stipulates that a police officer may not be detained if, in the exercise of his constitutional function, he used his weapon and caused the death or injury of a citizen involved in a criminal act.
However, at the end of the text, in the complementary provision, literal a) of numeral 1 of article 261 of the New Code of Criminal Procedure is repealed, which enabled a judge to order the preliminary detention of any person even if there is no flagrante delicto and only considering the evidence of a possible leak.
This year, when the law allowed it, the president’s brother, Nicanor Boluarte, and the lawyer Mateo Castañeda were preliminarily detained for the Los Waykis en la Sombra case.
In another media process, the head of the Peruvian Football Federation (FPF), Agustín Lozano, suffered the same fate when he was investigated in the Los Galacticos case.
And in recent years, several politicians and their operators were captured under that legal figure.
This repeal not only harms the work of the Prosecutor’s Office that prosecutes crime, but also that of the National Police that investigates high-caliber criminals.
Consequently, raids can only be carried out to seize evidence. But even this type of proceedings were undermined by the Legislature, last September, by changing the Organized Crime Law and requiring the presence of the lawyer of those investigated to proceed with the operation.
Regarding the case of rape and murder of a minor under 12 years of age, the spokesperson for the Public Ministry, Víctor Cubas, said on Perú21TV that the detainee “could easily be released the day after tomorrow because the provision under which he is being preliminarily detained.”
Threat to magistrates
Yesterday, Law No. 32182 was also promulgated, which makes changes to the fiscal and judicial career laws, and to the Criminal Procedure Code.
It is now considered a serious offense for a prosecutor to provide or disclose confidential information from investigations. In this way, the public official can be removed from office if the violation of this new provision is corroborated.
Furthermore, for judges it is now considered a very serious offense to order the release of people detained in flagrante delicto. For prevarication, the law stipulates a prison sentence of no less than eight nor more than twelve years.
In reality, the changes approved by Congress and accepted by the government without objection are presented as norms to protect its interests and hit justice, which is hot on the heels of corruption in politics.
Please note
-The Perú Libre bench presented a bill for provisional judges and prosecutors to cease their duties if they have been in office for more than a year.
-The proposal is harmful if one considers that many provisionals have in their hands investigations that involve politicians and criminal organizations in the interior of the country.
-The project is in the Congressional Justice Commission.
Now available in Yape! Find us at YAPE Promos.
