Peru’s once-Most Wanted man, Romulo “the rat” León Alegría, was released from jail on Monday, after a local court ruled that he could be put under house arrest.
On June 2, 2009, Lima’s Third Penal Court reverted León’s sentence from jail detention to home confinement. The controversial decision sparked immediate criticism from across Peru’s political spectrum, and made headlines in the local press.
Last November, after eluding the police for 38 days, León turned himself in to anti-corruption officials investigating his alleged involvement in Peru’s most recent oil kickback scandal, locally known as “Petrogate.”
“I am completely innocent,” said León as he stepped out of Lima’s San Jorge minimum security prison on Monday. “I am asking the press for objectivity. Right now, I do not want to make any comments. I only want to be reunited with my family, but I am completely innocent.”
León is to remain in his son’s San Isidro home, a posh district in Peru’s capital, Lima.
Last October, Sunday night investigative TV news program Cuarto Poder broadcast audio recordings purportedly of Perupetro Vice President Alberto Quimper and Romulo León Alegría, a prominent member of Garcia’s ruling Aprista party, discussing under-the-table payments conditioned on Norwegian Discover Petroleum obtaining oil exploration concessions.
According to the recordings, Quimper, Leon and Ernesto Arias-Schreiber, the legal representative of Discover in Peru, were to receive $10,000 monthly in exchange for steering lucrative oil contracts to explore the offshore oil blocks and gas field.
The scandal led the government to suspend five joint exploration and development contracts recently awarded to state-owned oil company Petroperu and Discover Petroleum of Norway. The minister of Energy and Mines, Juan Valdivia, immediately handed in his resignation and only days later, the whole cabinet and cabinet chief Jorge del Castillo resigned.
