By BBC News World
Nov 20, 2024, 08:58 AM EST
The Peruvian justice system this Tuesday ordered preventive detention for the brother of President Dina Boluarte, while the prosecutor’s office investigates him for alleged influence peddling, bribery and belonging to a criminal organization.
Nicanor Boluarte He is wanted by the authorities inside and outside the country, since he did not appear at the hearing in which the judge Richard Concepción Carhuancho issued the decision.
According to local media, the location of the president’s brother has been unknown since last Sunday, when The Public Ministry requested that he be arrested due to flight riskand he connected “virtually” to be part of the legal process that was broadcast on television.
The period of preventive detention that must be served is 36 months.
Boluarte’s defense said he will appeal the decision, while he has denied the allegations against him in the past.
The authorities assure that after Pedro Castillo was removed from the presidency for trying to dissolve Congress in December 2022, and Dina Boluarte, who at that time was vice president, took office, her brother exercised “de facto power” to appoint officials.
Concepción Carhuancho considered that due to his connection with the “spheres of power”, Nicanor Boluarte could try to flee.
Previously arrested
This is not the first time that the justice system has issued an arrest warrant against the brother of the Peruvian president.
In May he was detained for a few hours along with the president’s lawyer, Mateo Castaneda.
The Judiciary indicated that Nicanor Boluarte had been accused of “influencing the appointment of positions in the department of Cajamarca and in state organizations so that people willing to contribute financially to the corrupt network that he was trying to create were elected.”
He would also have demanded their collaboration in collecting signatures and the necessary procedures to register a new political party.
The Prosecutor’s Office accused the lawyer Castañeda of having tried deactivate the ongoing investigation into the president’s brother offering its protection to the police commanders who communicate relevant information in this regard.
Castañeda advises the president in a case of alleged illicit enrichment due to the use of luxurious Rolex brand watches and high jewelry items.
Dina Boluarte, whose popularity has fallen to historic levels and who must govern until July 2026, has also denied the allegations.
But this is not the only investigation that the first president of Peru faces.
The prosecution is leading an investigation against him for allegedly being complicit in dozens of deaths in the anti-government protests at the end of 2022 and beginning of 2023, when he began his administration.
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