MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Peruvian prosecutors want Castillo's wife held in pre-trial detention

The former first lady is in Mexico after being granted political asylum

Peru's Public Prosecutor's Office has filed a request for former First Lady Lilia Paredes-Castillo's pre-trial arrest while she is under investigation for her alleged participation in a corruption ring, it was reported Friday in Lima.

The wife of deposed President Pedro Castillo Terrones is already in Mexico, where she has been granted political asylum by the Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) administration.

Prosecutor Jorge García Juárez also said a similar measure had been requested against her brothers Walter and David Paredes.

“This Public Prosecutor's Office, on January 5, 2023, has proceeded to file a duly motivated and grounded request for preventive imprisonment,” he said. “Circumstances that have become known in the last 30 days .. have suddenly increased and elevated the procedural danger,” he added.

Paredes left Peru on Dec. 21, two weeks after Castillo was impeached and arrested and accused of rebellion after attempting to dissolve Congress.

The former first lady and her siblings are being investigated as alleged members of a criminal organization headed by the former president to obtain illicit benefits from fraudulent bids for public works. The Public Prosecutor's Office believes that Paredes was the coordinator of this corrupt network, in which former members of Castillo's government are also involved.

Paredes' younger sister Yenifer, who was raised as a daughter by the former presidential couple and who was held for two months in a women's prison in Lima, is also being investigated in the so-called Anguía case.