EPA/ShutterstockPeru’s former President Pedro Castillo is among two of the South American nation’s ex-leaders to be handed prison sentences in as many days.
The left-wing leader was given 11 years in jail on Thursday for attempting to disband Peru’s Congress and rule by decree in 2022. The gamble failed, and he was impeached and arrested.
He was found guilty of “conspiracy to commit rebellion” by the Supreme Court, which handed down the sentence at the same time as convicting him.
Castillo’s sentence comes just a day after another former Peruvian president, Martín Vizcarra, was handed 14 years’ in prison for bribe-taking while serving as a regional governor.
The centrist politician, who had championed the fight against corruption during his term in office, was found guilty of taking bribes while governor of the Moquegua region between 2011 and 2014.
Prosecutors said he received bribes worth more than $600,000 (£453,753) from construction companies who were seeking contracts for public works. Vizcarra has always maintained his innocence.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court acquitted Castillo of two other charges.
Dubbed Peru’s first poor president, Castillo, a former trade unionist and rural schoolteacher, won power in 2021 on a wave of frustration with conventional politics.
His arrest and impeachment sparked deadly mass protests in 2022 among his working-class rural base. The protests were brutally repressed by security forces, leaving at least 50 dead.
On Thursday, dozens of Castillo’s supporters gathered outside the prison he is being held in to await the verdict, according to AFP.
One supporter, Julia Buendia, told the news agency she still believed Castillo was innocent.
ReutersVizcarra and Castillo are the latest in a series of former Peruvian presidents to be jailed for misconduct.
Ollanta Humala, who served as the nation’s president between 2011 and 2016, was found guilty of money laundering and sentenced to 15 years in prison earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Alejandro Toledo, who governed it from 2001 to 2006, was sentenced last year to more than 20 years in prison for taking $35m (£26m) in bribes from a construction company.
Peru has been beset by political crises in recent years.
In October, clashes between anti-government protesters and riot police in the Peruvian capital, Lima, left one man and more than 100 injured.
The protests came after the current President José Jerí was sworn in on an interim basis following the impeachment of his predecessor, Dina Boluarte.
Boluarte was ousted by lawmakers on grounds of “permanent moral incapacity” amid soaring crime rates in Peru.
Her presidency was overshadowed by several investigations, including a corruption inquiry dubbed “Rolexgate”, concerning allegations she accepted Rolex watches as bribes.
