The chief prosecutor of the Lava Jato team in Peru is suspended for eight and a half months from his position

Lima, Oct 6 (EFE).- Senior prosecutor Rafael Vela, who until now leads the investigative team of the Lava Jato case in Peru, was suspended for eight and a half months from his duties for allegedly having committed serious misconduct by having questioned in 2020 a judicial decision within the framework of the investigation against the right-wing leader Keiko Fujimori.

Local media reported this Friday that the decision was made by the National Control Authority of the Public Ministry, headed by the provisional superior prosecutor Carlos Muñoz León, and includes a temporary suspension without pay for two “very serious” infractions and another “serious.”

The measure was taken after a complaint filed in May 2020 by Judge Sonia Torres, who attributed Vela to “having issued inappropriate and manifestly offensive expressions” against her and other magistrates when she questioned the decision to revoke the prison before the media. 15-month preventive measure that was issued against Fujimori for the Odebrecht case.

The resolution stated that Vela “incurred an act or omission that, without being a crime, seriously compromises the duties of the position,” having commented on “procedural aspects that were being carried out in an ongoing process, as well as interfering in the exercise of functions of the other organs of the State”.

In response, Vela stated on Canal N television that he is a victim of “abuse and arbitrariness” by the control body and announced that he will file an appeal to seek to reverse the measure.

The prosecutor maintained that his team has already faced “this type of circumstances” and stressed that he will use “all the mechanisms that the law provides to combat this abuse and arbitrariness.”

In other statements to the RPP radio station, Vela added that prosecutor Muñoz imposed the sanction on him even though he “just took over his duties” after being sworn in this Wednesday.

“He has not listened to me, he has not evaluated any type of evidence,” he said before indicating that this Thursday he visited his office to deliver notifications, something he described as “unprecedented, because a senior prosecutor does not fulfill that type of functions.”

When referring to the complaint presented by Judge Torres, he noted that her statements were “part of the exercise of criticism of judicial decisions” and never implied any personal aspect.

In that sense, he considered on Canal N that he will not be suspended from his duties until his appeal is resolved and announced that he will meet with the attorney general, Patricia Benavides, to request her support.

“Certainly I do not have any expectation of objectivity and impartiality from the supervisory authority, therefore I will have to act within all the possibilities that the law provides for me,” he said.

The prosecutor also pointed out that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) “is aware” of these events and has already requested information from the National Control Authority of the Public Ministry.