Agents of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and members of the High Complexity Crime Investigations Division (DIVIAC) of the Peruvian Police searched early Monday morning (local time) the home and offices of Walter Ayala, one of former President Pedro Castillo’s defense ministers.
According to preliminary information, the search could be related to the alleged irregular promotions within the Armed Forces and the National Police, a case that has been linked to Ayala and other high-ranking members of the security forces, according to RPP radio station.
The agents of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Police first went to Ayala’s offices, where they had to enter by force. Then they went to the former minister’s private residence, who allowed them to enter.
In both offices of the man who was in charge of Defense between July and November 2021, the Prosecutor’s Office and the National Police have seized a laptop, several documents and a mirror copy of his personal computer.
At the end of the search operation in his properties, Ayala has moved before the media his predisposition to collaborate with Justice. «I have been a judge and I have a great responsibility not to lie», he said.
«I am willing to say what I know, I am not going to carry other people’s guilt on my back. If I have seen that someone has left some (money) or not, I will say it to a prosecutor,» said the former Minister of Defense, according to ‘La Republica’.
In this sense, Ayala has asserted to be «clean» of any guilt and has rejected being involved with any kind of corrupt plot. «If there are people who have stolen, let them go to jail because no one should steal from the State. I am clean,» he has said. «As Walter Ayala I reaffirm that I am not a thief and I have not stolen a single sol from the State, and proof of this is that more than a year and a half has passed and I am here: well standing,» he has pointed out.
«I am being investigated for some alleged promotions that occurred between September and October 2021. It has been almost a year and a half, what are they going to find in a year and a half? I think this investigation has been unnecessary, and what is the proof that it is unnecessary? They haven’t found anything,» he added.
In mid-July, Peru’s Public Prosecutor’s Office accused former President Castillo of leading an alleged criminal organization dedicated to the promotion of officers of the Armed Forces and the National Police who supported the then president.
According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office hypothesis, Castillo’s former advisor Bruno Pacheco and former minister Ayala «would have operationalized and materialized the criminal project,» thanks to which, together with the president, they would have benefited economically.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
