Police raid Peru President's home in search of relative
Police on Wednesday raided the private home
of Peruvian President Pedro Castillo, local media reported, in search of his
corruption-accused sister-in-law, whose lawyer said she later turned herself in
to authorities.
Castillo himself is the subject of five
criminal investigations, including for graft, and has survived two impeachment
attempts since taking office in July last year.
Images broadcast on several television
channels showed agents entering Castillo's home in the rural, northern
Cajamarca region on Wednesday.
This came just hours after an unprecedented
raid Tuesday at the presidential palace in Lima to execute a warrant for the
detention of Castillo's sister-in-law Yenifer Paredes.
But while agents left Castillo's house
empty-handed, Paredes's lawyer Jose Dionisio later told RPP radio station that
his client had taken investigators "by surprise" by turning up at the
prosecutor's office and handing herself in.
"We are inside the prosecutor's office,"
Dionisio said.
The prosecutor's office did not confirm a
raid had taken place, but Castillo had said at a public event in Lima on
Wednesday that "they have just entered my home."
Castillo, a 52-year-old rural schoolteacher
and trade unionist, unexpectedly took power from Peru's traditional political
elite in elections last year.
He has come under non-stop fire from his
right-wing political rivals and is also in the crosshairs of the attorney
general's office investigating claims including public tender corruption and
that Castillo plagiarized his university thesis.
Opinion polls show that three-quarters of
Peruvians disapprove of his management of the country, which has seen three
prime ministers and seven interior ministers come and go in just over a year.
Others in president's circle
investigated
Paredes, 26, lives with Castillo and his
wife, who she reportedly views as "parents."
She is the fourth person in the presidential
entourage to be investigated for alleged corruption, and also faces money
laundering charges.
The others include a nephew who served as an
adviser, a former transport minister – both fugitives from justice – and
Castillo's former presidential secretary.
The Court of Justice said in a statement that
Tuesday's raid on the presidential palace was to execute a judicial search
warrant for Paredes.
Other raids took place simultaneously
elsewhere in the capital, with Jose Nenil Medina – a mayor from Castillo's
native Chota province – and businessmen brothers Hugo and Angie Espino arrested
for alleged involvement in the same corruption ring.
In a message broadcast on television late
Tuesday, Castillo called the operation "an illegal raid" that was
part of a conspiracy to remove him from office.
His lawyer Benji Espinoza later announced his
resignation, without divulging why, but insisted his former client was the
victim of "a lynching, because there has never been a president
investigated by the judiciary."
Also on Tuesday, a parliamentary committee
report recommended disqualifying and prosecuting Castillo over his reported
consideration of a proposal to allow landlocked neighbor Bolivia access to the
sea.
Want to send us a story? Submit on Wananchi Reporting on the Citizen Digital App or Send an email to wananchi@royalmedia.co.ke or Send an SMS to 25170 or WhatsApp on 0743570000
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a Comment