Lima (EFE) act of rebellion, let alone a conspiracy” because they did not take up arms.
“Today I am a political prisoner. Since December 7 I have been kidnapped and I do not even have the right to a space for communication. Mr. Magistrate, I did not take up arms”, declared Castillo at the end of a virtual hearing in the process opened against him for the crime of rebellion.
From the prison where he is serving 18 months in pretrial detention for this case and another 36 months for another case of alleged corruption, the former president insisted that he did not coordinate or call “anyone specifically to take up arms.”
No act of rebellion, let alone a conspiracy
In this sense, he reiterated his innocence and accused the “Congress, the Public Ministry and the press” of having orchestrated a “gear” from “the first day” he took office, on July 28, 2021, because, he asserted, “Until now they have not assimilated the defeat they had in an open, democratic process, in the last general elections.”
“I did not commit any act of rebellion, let alone a conspiracy. An act of rebellion is planned, organized and executed. Tell me (magistrate), has Congress been dissolved? Have the institutions been intervened? What happens, sir, is that a tremendous arbitrariness has been committed, I have been detained arbitrarily and unconstitutionally”, added the rural school teacher.
After his speech, Supreme Judge Juan Carlos Checkley clarified to the ex-governor that “he is not a political prisoner”, but that he is serving a preventive detention order that was issued by his court and later confirmed by the Supreme Court.
Hundreds of appeals
The lawyer, after listening to the arguments of all the parties, indicated that he will resolve the amparo appeal presented by Castillo’s defense, attorney Wilfredo Robles, within the term of the law.
In his message to the nation on December 7, 2022, Castillo announced the formation of an emergency Executive that would govern by decree, the reorganization of the justice system, and the closure of Congress without it having twice denied him confidence, such and as established by the Constitution, which is why the order issued by the then president is qualified mostly as an attempted coup d’état.
In an interview with EFE, carried out last March, Robles explained that the former president gave that speech because he felt that he was going to be dismissed hours later by Parliament and as a “last letter”, when “he had already lost the game.”
In recent months, Castillo has repeatedly asked the Judiciary, through fifty appeals, protections and other resources, to annul the preventive detention and the process for rebellion against him, alluding to an alleged violation of his right to pretrial. political, a political-judicial process through which the immunity of high officials is lifted.
To date, however, no appeal has prospered.