Lima, Nov 27 (EFE).- The lawyer for former Peruvian president Martín Vizcarra (2018-2020), Erwin Siccha, stated that the 14-year prison sentence handed down this Wednesday is «arbitrary» and assured they will request a suspension and will also appeal in a second instance. «We are going to appeal, we are going to take all the corresponding legal mechanisms, we are going to carry out two key actions: request the suspension of the immediate execution of the sentence, which the Superior Court will dictate, and an appeal against this conviction sentence that we consider arbitrary,» Siccha said at the doors of the court. The lawyer added that they will seek to present these resources in the shortest possible time because «an innocent person cannot be deprived of their liberty.» The Fourth Collegiate National Criminal Court sentenced Vizcarra to 14 years in prison for the crime of passive bribery, considering that he received more than 2.3 million soles (about $700,000) when he was governor of the southern region of Moquegua (2011-2014), before becoming head of state. The court found it proven that Vizcarra proposed and received a bribe of one million soles from the company Obrainsa to award it the agricultural irrigation project Lomas de Ilo in 2013 and another of 1.3 million soles from the company ICCGSA to develop the improvement of the Moquegua Hospital. In this regard, Siccha said that they had at least «expected a sentence with legal and probatory rigor from judges specialized in criminal law,» referring to the fact that the court has made «serious confusions.» He detailed that, for example, Vizcarra has been declared guilty of the crime of bribery without any way of proving the meetings that the former president held in Lima from November 4 to 6, 2013, with representatives of the company Obrainsa, and added that they showed evidence that he was in Moquegua at that time. He also criticized that the crimes have not been proven and that they have been based solely on statements from collaborating witnesses. He added that currently, Vizcarra is in custody at the National Penitentiary Institute (INPE) and that before being transferred to a prison, probably Barbadillo, known as «the presidents' prison,» a legal medical examination will have to be performed.
