Corruption, Crime, Law & Justice, Politics

Corruption in the Judicial System Surfaces in Phone Taps

President Vizcarra with (l.to r.) Premier Cesar Villanueva, Constitutional Court president Ernesto Blume, Congress president Luis Galarreta, Judiciary president Duberli Rodriguez, and Attorney General Pablo Sanchez. Source: Presidency

President Martin Vizcarra yesterday called on Congress to apply article 157 of the Constitution to fire three magistrates on the National Magistrates Council, CNM, while the president of the Judiciary declared a 60-day emergency assessment of the Court of Callao and the CNM has suspended all appointment decisions.

The President held an emergency meeting earlier of the State Council, following the disclosure by investigative journalists of audio recordings that expose deep corruption in the Superior Court in Callao and the National Magistrates Council.

At the press conference, the President stressed the commitment of the State branches to reject all forms of corruption.  With him were cabinet chief Cesar Villanueva, the head of Congress Luis Galarreta, Duberli Rodriguez of the Judiciary, Attorney General Pablo Sanchez, and the head of the Constitutional Court, Ernesto Blume.

The first recordings, made public by investigative journalist Gustavo Gorriti at IDL-Reporteros, open a window onto the almost wholesale trading of favors — job positions, lenient sentences or shelving of cases, votes for court candidacies—by the chief justice on the Superior Court of Callao, a justice on the Supreme Court, and three members on the National Magistrates Council, which appoints judges and officials to institutions such as the national elections procedures office, ONPE.

Gorriti says the recordings were given to him by an anonymous source, and are the result of court-ordered phone taps and follow-up surveillance in a police and district attorney investigation that began six months ago into organized crime groups in Callao.  The target was gangs of drug traffickers and hit men in the port city but the continuing surveillance, including of meetings in restaurants and other venues, began to uncover an ever-expanding web of contacts from organized crime members to attorneys and up through the legal system to the justices.

“What is disturbing is the normalization” of these favors and trades, said Ivan Montoya, a former prosecutor. In an interview with El Comercio, he cited the example of CNM magistrate Ivan Noguera, who asked Justice Rios of Callao to sign an internship agreement with Telesup college to benefit his wife, who is dean of the school’s law faculty.   Telesup’s owner is former congressman Jose Luna, whose current attempt to influence the elections board to accept his candidacy for the upcoming regional elections is criticized by ethics groups.

In another recording, discussing a case of the rape of an 11-year old girl, justice Cesar Hinostroza of the Second Transitory Criminal court of the Supreme Court, asked his caller what he wanted. “So you want me to lower the sentence or declare him innocent?” (Rape of a minor now means a life sentence).

New recordings have been broadcast on the Panorama TV program, which include Callao chief justice Walter Rios saying he expects “up to 10 green ones as a guarantee,” and Hinostroza coordinating a meeting with “Mrs. K” of “the No.1 force.”  Both Hinostroza and Keiko Fujimori of the majority Fuerza Popular deny any knowledge of such a coordination.

The details are shocking but the corruption in the legal system comes as little surprise to a public familiar with years-long court cases, stalling of cases until they run the statute of limitations, or sentences that don’t match the lightness or severity of the crime.

However, there are also political implications that affect not only the justice system and the Congress but also the regional and municipal elections in October this year — questionable candidates being given a free pass while others are blocked.

Those involved protest the recordings as “unconstitutional” and politicians possibly in the crosshairs say the information has been given into the hands of “subversives.” Gorriti and his team have promised more recordings.

One Comment

  1. Enrique Woll Battistini

    The Peruvian Constitution needs to be overhauled, and the key State institutions rebuilt from the ground up: At this point in history, the country has a territory, and several dozen nations inhabiting it, and perhaps hundreds of thousands of foreigners, but it has nothing resembling an effective Congress, Judicial System, and Executive Branch; they have all been critically eroded by the wave of corruption that is seemingly sweeping the entire world. Poverty, chaos, and criminality grow daily. The People need to stand up against this even if we are not alone in it.

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