Lima (EFE) – Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006) did not attend this Tuesday, for the second time in a row, the court hearing on “mixed request control” for the crime of money laundering that takes place after being extradited this Sunday from the United States.
“My patron has requested that he not be participating in the hearing,” announced his lawyer, Roberto Su, when asked by the judge in charge of the case, Richard Concepción Carhuancho, about the possibility of Toledo participating in the hearing virtually from the Barbadillo prison, where he has been confined.
The lawyer added that his client had to undergo “medical examinations” in prison and for that reason he had decided not to attend.
Although the judge had asked the lawyer for Toledo to appear at Tuesday’s hearing, he accepted the former president’s position and asked to be told that “the court will always be available so that he can connect to any hearing.”
Concepción Carhuancho had already indicated on Monday that, since it is an accusation control, a phase prior to the eventual start of an oral trial, “there is no obligation” for Toledo to participate in the hearings.
Toledo and the judicial process
Local media reported this Tuesday that this process of judicial control of the accusation could last for a year and a half, although the prosecutorial team in charge of the case expects it to last a few months.
The newspaper La República recalls that during this stage the judge carries out, together with the Prosecutor’s Office and the lawyers, “a meticulous and detailed analysis” of the accusation, to determine that the criminal charges have been clearly described, there is a correspondence with the type criminal described and the facts are individualized for each defendant.
In addition, each of the pieces of evidence is evaluated “to determine that they have been legally obtained and that they effectively demonstrate the facts indicated by the Prosecutor’s Office.”
In the first hearing, held this Monday, the prosecutor José Domingo Pérez admitted that he must correct formal errors in the accusation on the crime of collusion that he has made against others involved in this case.
imprisonment of the former president
Toledo, 78, is being held this Sunday night in the Barbadillo prison, where former presidents Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) and Pedro Castillo (2021-2022) are also.
This to serve a preventive detention of 18 months as a result of the process opened against him for alleged money laundering.
Previously, the former governor of Peru appeared on Sunday at an identity control hearing, and was then made available to the National Penitentiary Institute (INPE) to be taken to the prison.
Toledo is accused by the Prosecutor’s Office of having received a bribe of 35 million dollars from the Brazilian company Odebrecht to award him the construction of various sections of the South Interoceanic highway during his Government.