MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Peru: Castillo's arrest not arbitrary, court rules

Castillo was arrested before being removed from office so he still had immunity, his defense argued

A Peruvian court Monday upheld a previous ruling declaring the inadmissibility of a habeas corpus request filed in favor of former President Pedro Castillo to seek his release from jail.

With three concurring votes, the court overcame one dissenting opinion favoring the former ruler who was impeached and arrested on Dec. 7 last for staging a coup d'état when he tried to dissolve Congress.

Monday's ruling also urges the Peruvian Congress to regulate the procedure for the constitutional accusation of high-ranking state officials in the case of flagrante delicto.

The lawsuit, which was filed by the National Federation of Lawyers of Peru, claims that the then president was arrested without having his immunity lifted, without his dismissal and the appointment of Dina Boluarte as the new head of state published in the Official Gazette, so they consider his detention to be arbitrary, and therefore “null and void.”

The First Constitutional Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice's resolution states that it is possible to detain high officials exceptionally in cases of flagrante delicto or quasi-flagrante delicto, “even more so if they threaten the constitutional legal order.”

“The detention of Mr. José Pedro Castillo Terrones is not arbitrary, since, in view of the fact that the alleged illicit conducts imputed to José Pedro Castillo Terrones, in his capacity as President of the Republic, were committed in flagrante delicto and in view of the attempted escape, the National Police of Peru was authorized to detain the aforementioned person in flagrante delicto in accordance with article 2, numeral 24, paragraph f, of the Political Constitution,” the court argued.