Congress: Audience against Manuel Merino will resume for deaths of Inti and Bryan

The Congressional Subcommittee on Constitutional Indictments (SAC) will resume the hearing against former President Manuel Merino for the deaths of Inti Sotelo and Bryan Pintado during the strong protests in November 2020.

The session has been scheduled for Monday, April 25, to deal with the constitutional complaint filed by the former prosecutor of the Nation, Zoraida Ávalos. It also includes the former president of the Council of Ministers, Ántero Flores-Aráoz, and the former Minister of the Interior, Gastón Rodríguez.

It is recalled that on October 4, the then Prosecutor of the Nation filed a complaint about the deaths of Inti Sotelo and Bryan Pintado, and the injuries suffered to 78 people in the police repression during the mobilizations in November last year.

It considers that the officials failed to fulfill their constitutional duty to protect the lives and physical integrity of the participants in the above-mentioned mobilizations. In addition, it considers that they did not take measures to control the use of police force, which ended up being disproportionate. This omission occurred, according to the Office of the Prosecutor, despite official information regarding the intensification of these actions.

In this regard, it is indicated that the defendants would have acted with eventual malice, since since they took office they were aware of the social demonstrations, since they were reported by the media.

On the other hand, the SAC will also continue with the hearing against former president Martín Vizcarra and former ministers Patricia Balbuena and Ulla Holmquist, for the alleged crimes of influence trafficking and willful embezzlement for appropriation for an aggravated third party.

MANUEL MERINO REQUESTED LIFE PENSION

Last year, it was reported that former President Manuel Merino, whose term lasted just over five days, sent a letter to the President of Congress, María del Carmen Alva (Popular Action), requesting that he be allocated a lifetime pension for the position he held from November 10 to 15, 2020. He resigned from the presidency after massive protests against him that left two young people dead.

“I request that you grant me the pension established in Law No. 26519, as well as to assign me the logistical and personnel benefits indicated in the Bureau Agreement No. 078-2016-2017,” says the official Manuel Merino received on September 8 of this year.

TRANSPARENCY COURT ORDERS POLICE TO DELIVER REPORTS ON NOVEMBER MARCHES

More than a year after the protests in November 2020, the Transparency Court of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights ( Minjus) requested the Ministry of the Interior (Mininter) to hand over the intelligence reports of the Police.

Through a Twitter thread, journalist Ernesto Cabral explained that he made a request to the Mininter for information so that the Peruvian National Police (PNP) inform him of the reports that mentioned the Prosecutor's Office in its constitutional complaint against Merino. In this case, they refused it.

A peló to the Court of Transparency, belonging to the Minjus. “My main argument is that the Law says: 'information related to the violation of human rights shall not be considered classified information'. The (Prosecutor's Office) investigates repression as a violation of human rights.” , he said.

Days later, this court ruled in their favor and ordered the Public Prosecutor's Office to deliver the intelligence reports, within seven working days. Otherwise, they would receive a complaint from the Prosecutor's Office.

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