The Prosecutor's Office of Peru summons Castillo to testify in the framework of an investigation against him for corruption

The former Minister of Transport refuses to go to declare: "I have not received any notification"

MADRID, 6 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Peruvian Prosecutor's Office has summoned the country's president, Pedro Castillo, to testify on June 13 in the framework of an investigation against him for corruption, influence peddling, among other crimes.

The country's Public Ministry has also requested the presence of former Transport and Communications Minister Juan Silva since prosecutors consider him one of the main members of what they have called a "mafia" within the sector.

Likewise, the former Deputy Minister of Transport Fabiola Caballero and former adviser Alex Starost have also been summoned by the Prosecutor's Office as a result of the 'Puente Tarata III' case, a contest that would have been assigned irregularly and that would have served to favor third parties.

On May 29, the attorney general, Pablo Sánchez, decided to open a preliminary investigation against the head of state. Thus, Castillo has been included in the investigation, which also investigates the actions of six other Popular Action congressmen.

Prosecutors have guaranteed that the president will enjoy the "full exercise of his right to defense in accordance with article 117 of the Peruvian Constitution", according to information from the newspaper 'El Comercio'.

However, his lawyer, Benji Espinoza, has filed a petition calling for the investigation to be annulled and put to an end. "We have just presented the absolute annulment and we are going to give the Prosecutor's Office a reasonable period to rule. If it rejects our request, it opens the way for the protection of rights," declared the lawyer.

Silva himself has refused to go to testify and has argued that "he has not received any notification." Alfredo Yalán, his lawyer, has indicated that he will not appear at the summons of the Prosecutor's Office and has denounced that it is a "legal impossibility".

"We have not received any legal notification regarding a diligence that the Prosecutor's Office has apparently summoned for tomorrow. Moreover, according to the legal system that we have, article 147 of the Civil Procedure Code that is applied in a supplementary manner establishes that, Between the summons for the diligence and its completion, at least three business days must elapse," he asserted.

In this sense, he has clarified in statements to the RPP station that "the first condition that we have been notified has not been met, much less the second within the period established by law." "Tomorrow it will be impossible, legally speaking, to be able to attend because we don't know what it is about legally speaking," he added.

The Peruvian Justice issued precautionary measures over the weekend against Silva and two other Popular Action deputies, for which they are prohibited from leaving the country at the moment after being accused of committing crimes such as collusion or criminal organization.