Ex-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski will remain under house arrest , following a court decision today to rule against sending him to prison.
District attorney José Domingo Pérez charged Kuczynski with breaking the rules of conduct related to his house arrest, and filed to send the former president to serve the remainder of his preventive custody sentence in a prison.
Perez said the grounds for changing the detention status were the visits Kuczynski had received in his home from the Vice-President of Peru, Mercedes Araoz, and lawmakers Carlos Bruce and Gilberto Violeta, all of whom resigned last week from the political party once led by Kuczynski.
House arrest rules allow visits from family members and visitors in general, but prohibit social gatherings and visits for political purposes.
Kuczynski’s defense attorney, Cesar Nakasaki, argued that the visitors were long-time friends of the defendant, that there was no proof of any political purpose, and none of the visitors were related in any way to the case for which Kuczynski is under investigation — his firm Westfield Capital provided investment analysis services to the Brazilian firm Odebrecht while he was serving as cabinet minister in Alejandro Toledo’s administration (2001-2006); although the company’s services were handled by someone else, Kuczynski had not divested himself of ownership.
Nakasaki also argued that Kuczynski’s house arrest is due to his age (81) and his heart condition.
Justice Jorge Chavez, the same judge who ordered the house arrest in April this year, ruled that the district attorney did not provide sufficient grounds for changing Kuczynski’s detention status. D.A. Perez presented an appeal this afternoon, adding the argument that Kuczynski’s heart condition is neither serious nor incurable.
Kuczynski is serving a 36-month pre-trial detention while the district attorney’s office investigates charges of money laundering and organized crime, charges that D.A. Perez, one of the legal team investigating the Odebrecht bribery scandals, has used against all defendants who had any links to Odebrecht — including presidential candidate and Fuerza Popular party leader Keiko Fujimori and ex-President Ollanta Humala and his wife Nadine Heredia. The charges allow the district attorney’s office an almost unlimited time — up to 30 years— to investigate. Humala and Heredia, who have three pre-teen children, were released after nine months in prison and are now facing trial. Meanwhile, Keiko Fujimori’s appeal for release has been denied, mainly on the grounds of obstruction of justice.
In the Westfield Capital case linking Kuzcynski to Odebrecht, charges for a conflict of interest are minor and the statute of limitations has now run out.
