Live: Government Crisis in Peru
The former Peruvian president’s lawyer requests asylum for “unfounded persecution by judicial bodies”
MADRID, Dec. 9 (.) –
The former president of Peru Pedro Castillo has reiterated his request for asylum from prison before the Mexican ambassador in Lima, Pablo Monroy, as reported by the Mexican Foreign Minister.
“Ambassador Pablo Monroy reports to me from Lima that he was able to meet with Pedro Castillo at the prison at 1:30 p.m. He found him well and in the company of his lawyer,” reported the head of Mexican diplomacy, Marcelo Ebrard.
Ebrard has indicated that Castillo “has ratified the asylum request received at the Mexican Embassy this morning (02:00 local time).” “We have proceeded to initiate consultations with the Peruvian authorities,” announced the leader of the Foreign Ministry.
LAWYER FOR CASTILLO: “ASYLUM FOR UNFOUNDED PERSECUTION”
The lawyer of the former Peruvian president, Víctor Gilbert Pérez Liendo, had sent a letter to the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in which he requested “to consider granting asylum” to Castillo for “the unfounded persecution of justice bodies that have taken on a politician in his actions.
Thus, the defender asked the Mexican leader to agree to the asylum request “because it protects his life and integrity.”
“They intend to prosecute him for mere announcements of will or intention that do not constitute any criminal offense (at most preparatory acts),” according to the letter sent by Pérez Liendo.
The lawyer has assured that “those bodies” have “created a climate of extreme defenselessness and purely political persecution of anyone who thinks differently from the oligarchic group that rules over all the country’s institutions.”
“They have not even allowed me access to him despite having identified me as his defense attorney, so the serious risk he is in is evident,” he said in the letter addressed to López Obrador.
