Martin Vizcarra: Why the Attorney General’s Office is seeking more than $500,000 in civil damages in Richard Swain case | Policy

The former president was charged with aggravated influence peddling, fraudulent corruption through granting of funds to third parties, incompatible negotiations or improper use of office, and obstruction of justice.

Former Minister Patricia Balbuena She was also included in the case and charged with serious crimes including abuse of power for personal gain and fraud.

Mira: Dina Boluarte denied to prosecutors that the Rolex watches were “donations” and insisted they were “loans”

For this reason, PGE has requested the Peruvian government to pay S$175,000/175,000 in property damage and S$350,000/350,000 in non-property damage, according to the newspaper. The amounts are provisional and could increase later, depending on the progress of the preparatory investigation.

The judiciary will analyze the request at a hearing on June 27.

It is recalled that between 2018 and 2020, Vizcarra Cornejo participated in the direct hiring of singer Richard Cisneros Carballido by the Ministry of Culture for the amount of S/175,400, although he did not have the required profile.

The hiring was made through a service order so that the singer could give speeches at the ministry’s events when she was in charge of former minister Patricia Balbuena.

Recently, the Attorney General’s Office formally launched a preliminary investigation against Vizcarra Cornejo and Balbuena Palacios, concluding that they have the elements to be criminally prosecuted.

In this context, the Office of the State Attorney General requested that it be included in the procedure for safeguarding the national interest.

For this purpose, civil damages in the amount of S$525,000/525,000 (property and non-property losses) are claimed as joint and several civil damages.

Notably, Vizcarra Cornejo’s defense filed an objection seeking the denial of PGE’s request to become a civil actor in the process.

In light of this, the Chief Judge of the Preparatory Investigation, Juan Carlos Chekli, decided to set a date to analyze the positions of both parties at the hearing.

“According to the new procedural model, the principles of oral and contradiction, it is necessary to debate the basis of the parties to the procedure, which is why they must be present virtually through the Google Meet application in order to exercise their right to contradiction”, Indian.

In this sense, he called a hearing on June 27 at 9:30 am to ask the Public Defender’s Office to assign a lawyer to former President Martín Vizcarra in case of any contingency in his personal legal defense that would not be able to assist him during the meeting.

The prosecutor’s office warned that Vizcarra would seek to leave Lima for missionary purposes

On the other hand, during a hearing held this Wednesday, the Public Ministry (MP) warned that former President Martín Vizcarra will seek to leave Lima for Moquegua, claiming that there are “labor” issues, but in reality it will be for missionary purposes.

During the proceedings, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Teresa Tapia Cruz requested eight times in different months of 2024 to dismiss the appeal filed by the former president and his lawyer Fernando Ugaz to leave the capital.

In the process, Vizcarra Cornejo is waiting for the date to be set for the start of the oral trial, in which he is suspected of bribery in his capacity as former governor of Moquegua and irregularities in the bidding of works “Lomas de Ilo” and “Moquegua Hospital”. The case also involves criminal conspiracy; however, this is being considered to determine if he can also be indicted for this crime.

Prosecutors have requested a 15-year prison sentence for Vizcarra. Meanwhile, the former president is following a code of conduct, restricted and forced to ask for authorization to leave Lima, where he lives.

To this end, the senior prosecutor stated in the Third Criminal Appeal Chamber of the National High Court that no specific reasons had been given as to why he was required to leave his place of residence.

He said that in July 2023, the National Electoral Jury (JNE), after being vacated by Congress, ruled to ban Vizcarra from engaging in missionary activities as a party leader.

However, he has since again requested permission to leave the country for “work” travel, “missionary travel” or “political activities” until a higher court ruled that he could not continue to travel for missionary purposes because he was prevented by the JNE.

He even recalled that the Office of the Prosecutor of the First Instance warned that during a trip in December 2023, although he participated in work activities, he was also seen inaugurating a school in Moquegua.

In light of this, prosecutors said, the dissemination of the audio obtained in the investigation would prove the alleged manipulation of information so that the record showed that the former president was focused only on work activities during his trip.

Along these lines, the senior prosecutor said she wanted to draw the attention of the High Court to “an aspect that has come to their notice”.

Prosecutor Tapia Cruz recalled attending a hearing where Vizcarra appealed the decision to deny her travel on missionary grounds.

It was verified that the former president’s defense lawyer applied for a travel permit to Moquegua from January 9 to 13, 2024, citing “work” issues. However, he also requested a trip to Ica from January 12 to 14, 2024, for “missionary activities.”

To this end, he warned that the former president would leave Lima for any reason, for political reasons.

“All of this, therefore, leads us to infer a possible interest in travel, not for work; but for political reasons. The defendant now invokes any of these reasons because the goal was to leave the city; not because of a need.”

Teresa Tapia Cruz, Senior Deputy Prosecutor.

In addition, he indicated that the upcoming oral trial in the case against Vizcarra Cornejo made it necessary for him to remain in the territory of the court under restricted circumstances.

“But are there any documents indicating specific actions? Are there any documents that prove the connection between this and the municipality’s proceedings? No, so the (first instance) judge rejected the request with the correct standard, not because she did not have the right to work; but because it needed to detail the reasons for her work in light of the progress of the criminal proceedings; why not say it, about the progress of the work,” he questioned.

Based on these considerations, the Prosecutor requested confirmation of the resolution declaring Vizcarra Cornejo’s travel request to be unfounded.

Vizcarra’s legal defense insists he didn’t receive a lifetime pension

Vizcarra Cornejo’s defenders supported his appeal to leave Lima during the hearing, claiming that he had to comply with the employment contract he had signed with Brothers because he needed to work, as he had not received the pension of the former president of the republic who had been imprisoned for life.

The former president’s lawyer, Fernando Ugaz, claimed that his client won the labor case against Agrotécnica Estuquiña SA, a family business founded by the former head of state with his brothers Doris Vizcarra, Mario Vizcarra and César Vizcarra, who own 70% of the operation.

He claims that after being fired by the company, they reached a settlement agreement in 2023 in which Vizcarra promised to work in a “hybrid” way, that is, both virtual and face-to-face. Therefore, he had to travel to Moquegua every month to supervise the work being done by the company.

“It’s a hybrid job where part of the work has to be done on site, the only thing that has to be worked out is that you have to be on site five days a month,” the attorney said.

Ugaz denied that the audio files mentioned by the prosecution had been admitted as evidence by the court of first instance. Moreover, he assured that every time Vizcarra was authorized to leave Lima, he submitted a report on the work he performed, even though he was not obliged to do so.

Furthermore, he noted that the court of first instance had not questioned or warned them about their missionary activities during their previous trips; however, he admitted that during his “transition period” in Moquegua “he went to have lunch and they invited him.”

“It doesn’t say anything about changing religion. When the superior prosecutor said that, it was because my sponsor wanted to leave; that argument, Mr. Judge… when we were in mediation, my client had the right to maintain his home, he had the right to work, simply said ‘because he wanted to leave’; my sponsor had no lifetime pension and had a family. “It was not just about wanting to get out,” he claimed.

The legal defence argued that refusing him travel for work reasons violated fundamental work rights and international treaties.

“It is important that he keeps his job, which is the only source of income for his family, he does not have a lifelong pension and his family members are educated and this decision is to prevent compliance with the settlement agreement which requires him to go to Moquegua five days a month to carry out field work,” he reiterated.

He therefore requested that the first instance judgement be set aside and that his sureties be allowed to proceed to Moquegua.

In turn, Vizcarra Cornejo argued before the High Court that their trip to Moquegua was justified by work reasons, including the schedule of activities they would be carrying out.

“The work will be finished in August 2025 and I am an engineer and I have to work with the architects, the surveyors, but I am the one who has to go and approve the work. In the eight months that I have been authorised, when we return we have provided a detailed report of my work.”

Martín Vizcarra, former President of the Republic.

He assured that he would always give priority to responding to the investigative process if his travel dates intersected with those of the final oral trial.

“Three and a half years ago, I left public service and they disqualified me, so now they can’t possibly restrict me from doing private work,” he said.