By admin 
ROME – Peruvian lawyers have explained how the country’s criminal justice system works, and how it is used to attack journalists covering the scandal-ridden country Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV).
Founded in 1971 by Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari, the SCV was at its height one of the most influential and prestigious church groups in Latin America, but has been shrouded in scandal over the past decade surrounding allegations of abuse and financial corruption. including sexual crimes. abuse of minors and international money laundering, against Figari and other top members.
Journalists Pedro Salinas and Paola Ugaz, who exposed the scandals and continued to investigate the group, have faced a continued stream of criminal complaints against them by individuals and organizations linked to the SCV on charges including defamation and illegal enrichment.
Speak with CruxPeruvian journalist Carlos Rivera spoke about the flood of legal complaints against the journalists, saying: “I have no doubt that these criminal proceedings were part of a campaign of, let’s call it, legal demolition, of legal persecution against journalists.”
“If it happened once, you might say, hey, that was a one-judge issue, but we realized it happened multiple times,” he said.
Rivera represented Salinas in 2018 in a defamation suit against him brought by the then Archbishop of Piura, Jose Antonio Eguren, one of fifteen members of the SCV, including Figari himself, expelled from the group in recent weeks as part of an ongoing Vatican investigation.
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Rivera and fellow Peruvian lawyer Jose Ugaz explained Crux how the Peruvian criminal justice system works and how it is possible for private individuals to file criminal complaints
The criminal justice system in Peru consists mainly of the office of the attorney general, or public prosecutor, and the judiciary, which consists of a range of specialized criminal, civil and constitutional judges, Rivera said.
In Peru, “the Office of the Attorney General here in Peru has a very specific organization,” Rivera said, noting that there are prosecutors who specialize in different types of crimes, such as common petty crimes, organized crime, terrorism, corruption and money laundering.
In general, Rivera said prosecutors are the ones responsible for opening a criminal investigation into an individual or individuals based on information they receive about a possible crime.
Ugaz in his commentary on Crux said: “Anyone can file a complaint in Peru. All it takes is to draw up a so-called criminal report so that any citizen can go to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and file a complaint, but it is up to the public prosecutor to assess and determine the facts reported to him decide whether or not to open an investigation.”
“A complaint is filed and the Public Prosecution Service evaluates what is called the simple initial suspicion. If the public prosecutor believes that the reported facts meet the standard that leads to a simple first suspicion, he can open the investigation,” he said.
Rivera said once a prosecutor decides to open a preliminary investigation, they must determine who will conduct the investigation and within what time frame. Once that investigation is completed, the public prosecutor will determine whether a complaint should be filed with the judiciary.
Once in the judicial phase, Rivera said there is a presentation of evidence, a hearing where the prosecutor and the suspect’s attorney are present to discuss the charges, and finally a decision on whether a criminal trial will take place.
If this is the decision, Rivera says, charges will be filed and then a public trial will be held. Once a verdict is reached, if the defendants are found guilty, they have the right to appeal.
“Our criminal system allows ordinary people, ordinary citizens, to file complaints, even if they are not the ones directly harmed, which is more or less the case with the complaints filed against Paola Ugaz and Pedro Salinas,” he said.
Most legal complaints against Salinas and Ugaz concern defamation, although more recent complaints involve allegations of money laundering and illegal enrichment – crimes of which the SCV itself has been accused.
Rivera explained that defamation is considered a criminal offense in Peruvian law, and that this is the only case that does not involve a prosecutor, meaning citizens can file a complaint directly with a judge.
“That is the only case in which the Public Prosecution Service does not intervene. It is considered a crime against a very special right of people, namely the right to honor and to a good name,” Rivera said.
What this means in practice, he said, is that “if I defame you, in those cases you can file your complaint with the criminal court. The Public Prosecution Service does not intervene. You act as a prosecutor.”
“That is the only case, the only form of crime” where this is allowed, he said.
It is then up to the judge to review the complaint and initiate criminal proceedings or dismiss the complaint, he said.
“Unfortunately, in the case of the journalists we are talking about, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has always opened the investigations,” Rivera said, saying they did so “even though there was no evidence.”
Rivera said this is likely the result of the political or institutional influence “that some power groups have over the judiciary, causing the judges, who are supposed to make impartial, independent decisions, to make decisions that simply benefit the person complaining.” . of political pressure.”
“That is unfortunately a common fact in Peru,” he said, saying the SCV has a lot of power in Peru, and he personally witnessed this during the 2018 case involving Salinas and Eguren.
In that case, tried in Piura, “it was clear that we were fighting one of the most powerful people in that city. That is why they convicted Pedro Salinas without any evidence,” he said.
After Salinas’ guilty verdict, Eguren dropped the complaint in the wake of widespread political and ecclesiastical backlash, and he also withdrew a similar complaint against Paola Ugaz.
Ugaz herself has continued to receive criminal complaints from individuals and organizations linked to the SCV, including a recent case for illegal enrichment that Rivera said has no legal standing, but in which the judge ordered the lifting of the secrecy of her communications, thus possibly its sources.
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In his commentary on CruxJose Ugaz, who represented a group of SCV victims who attempted to file a criminal case against several SCV members that was ultimately archived, said that in Ugaz’s case: “It is clear to me that there has been a systematic campaign to destroy her image based on these false accusations that have no semblance of truth.”
“The fact that the decision to lift banking secrecy or communications secrecy was taken seems disproportionate to me,” he said, “this was apparently, as far as I know, done with judicial approval, which is what the law requires.”
“If there is judicial permission, the prosecutor will have to explain why they requested this waiver and if they do not have a reasonable explanation, from my point of view, they can even be punished for abusing his power,” he said.
Salinas himself also received a criminal complaint on October 23 for serious conspiracy in an alleged political plot while running a communications organization in 2017, asking his accusers, linked to the SCV, to pay a hefty fine and between 6 and 15 years in prison. .
Rivera said he believes the accusations against Salinas and Ugaz are false and amount to “a campaign against the journalists involved in the investigation” of the SCV.
Similarly, Ugaz said: “When the legal system is used to prosecute enemies by accusing them of false accusations, this is done widely in all countries of the world, using false accusations of corruption, money laundering, etc., to try to discredit the enemy. enemies.”
While he does not believe the situation in Peru is among the worst, Ugaz said of the SCV: “It is clear that in their case they used it very forcefully against Pedro Salinas and Paola Ugaz.”
Follow Elise Ann Allen on X: @eliseannallen