The supreme judge Juan Carlos Checkley dictated this Thursday 18 months of pretrial detention for former Peruvian President Pedro Castillo, while is being investigated for the crimes of rebellion and conspiracy for the failed self-coup d’état on December 7.
"Order preventive detention for a period of 18 months against the accused Pedro Castillo (…) who is under a preliminary detention order that runs from December 7, 2022 to June 6, 2024"Checkley read after a legal presentation that lasted for more than two hours.
In this way, it accepted the request made by the Prosecutor’s Office that it had considered what "there is a procedural period of escape" and in which he had a specific weight that, minutes before his dismissal, he had tried to go to the Mexican Embassy in Lima to request asylum.
The former prime minister and Castillo’s legal adviser, Aníbal Torres, has been included in the prosecutor’s request, and it was presented after the Judiciary authorized the request of the Public Ministry to initiate the preparatory investigation of Castillo.
However, the judge did not accept that request and insteadimposed a "appearance measure with restrictions".
Castillo will be investigated as the alleged co-perpetrator of the crimes of rebellion and conspiracy, as well as the alleged perpetrator of the crimes of abuse of authority and Serious disturbance of public peace.
The research has been described as "complex" by the Public Ministry and will last eight months.
Castillo was arrested on December 7 after being dismissed by Congress shortly after he announced the closure of Congress, the formation of an emergency executive, which was to govern by decree and reorganize the justice system, which has been described by the majority as an attempted coup d’état .
Neither Castillo nor any of his lawyers appeared this Thursday at the beginning of the hearing to review the request for preventive detention for 18 months that the Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office has presented.
At the start of the hearing, summoned by Supreme Judge Juan Carlos Checkley, It was reported that Castillo, who is serving preventive arrest, refused to receive notification of the prosecutor’s request.
In this sense, Judge Checkley reported that the ex-governor’s defense would be assumed by the public defender Italo Díaz, since none of his accredited defenders appeared at the hearing.
In this regard, the lawyer Ronald Atencio, one of Castillo’s defenders, reported on Twitter that neither he nor his colleague Raúl Noblecilla, They were going to participate in the pretrial detention hearing.
"There are many arguments that, in conversation with Pedro (Castillo), prompted us to make that decision."indicated before pointing out that among them is a "illegal and express vacancy (removal)".
He added that Congress has also made a "lifting of the pretrial"to which the former ruler is entitled, "illegal and express" and that the hearing has also been scheduled "to continue keeping Pedro Castillo Terrones detained".