Chilean businessman Gerardo Sepúlveda, partner of former Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018), denounced Peru to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for “illegal retention”, before declaring this Friday to the Prosecutor’s Office for corruption cases linked to Odebrecht.
In a statement from his lawyers to the local media, Sepúlveda, who is currently participating in the investigations as a witness, announced that he appealed to the IACHR on the grounds that the Peruvian Justice extended its prohibition to leave the country irregularly and retained it, for So much, illegally.
Trip aborted
The Chilean executive was prevented from leaving the country on February 26 last for a period of two months, but the national confinement decreed by COVID-19 caused the term to run out without the questioning provided by the Prosecutor’s Office being carried out.
Given this circumstance, Sepúlveda tried to board a humanitarian repatriation flight to Santiago de Chile on April 27, but the Peruvian immigration authorities prevented him.
That same day, the Justice neutralized the period elapsed since the confinement, so the prohibition remained in force until June 7.
The term was then extended again until this Friday, June 26.
Sepúlveda’s lawyers understand that from April 27 to June 7 his client was illegally held in Peru.
The expansion of the exit impediment finally expires this Friday, when the declaration of Sepúlveda is expected to take place in the offices of the Prosecutor’s Office.
Odebrecht case
The Chilean will declare before the prosecutor José Domingo Pérez, in charge of the Interoceanic Highway case, one of the chapters of the Odebrecht case, a Brazilian construction company that between 2005 and 2014 paid millionaire bribes to high-ranking officials in Peru to win large public works contracts. .
Sepúlveda’s lawyers also allege that the businessman was included in the file of this case irregularly, since in his opinion the 36-month period that the Prosecutor’s Office had to expire in order to carry out proceedings and file a criminal complaint has expired.
Former President Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006) is involved in the Interoceanic Highway file, with an ongoing extradition request to the United States for allegedly receiving US $ 20 million in bribes from Odebrecht.
At that time, former President Kuczynski was part of the Toledo Government, first as Minister of Economy and Finance and later as Prime Minister, in the final phase of the presidential term.
Kuczynski is currently under house arrest while being investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate whether, while he was a minister in Toledo, he also received illicit payments from Odebrecht through alleged fictitious consultancies from Westfield Capital, a company of the former president where he has Sepúlveda as a partner.
These suspicions led Kuczynski to resign from the Presidency of Peru before the opposition, led by Fujimori, dismissed him in Congress, where he had a majority.
His resignation was the first of a president in office because of the Odebrecht case and caused his presidential term to not last two years.
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