Castillo's lawyer said the decision will be appealed before the Special Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court. | Photo: EFE

Lima, June 25 (RHC)-- The Judicial Power (PJ) of Peru declared this Friday unfounded the appeal for protection of rights filed by President Pedro Castillo to stop the investigation of the Attorney General's Office for alleged corruption offenses.

In this sense, the Supreme Court of Preparatory Investigation communicated that Castillo's tutelage based on the "alleged violation of the constitutional principles of procedural legality and the principle of legal certainty" was unfounded.

At the same time, Judge Juan Carlos Checkley of the PJ pointed out that it is not absolute the fact that "the president of the Republic can only be accused for the assumptions foreseen in Article 117 of the Constitution."

In this regard, the magistrate of the preparatory investigation pointed out that "this does not annul the possibility of initiating a preliminary investigation as long as there are reasonable justifications."

Meanwhile, the president's defense lawyer, Benji Espinoza, stated that the decision would be appealed before the Special Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court to definitively resolve the issue of the guardianship.

Accordingly, the defense team advocates the alleged unconstitutionality of opening a legal process in the course of a presidential mandate to demand a control of legality from the judge.

Castillo is under an investigative process due to alleged alterations related to the case of the Tarata II Bridge where the former Minister of Transportation and Communications, Juan Silva; the former presidential secretary Bruno Pacheco and two relatives of the president are also allegedly linked.