A judge in the South American nation of Peru has ordered the country’s ex-president, Martin Vizcarra, to be held in pre-trial detention over bribery allegations.
In a hearing on Wednesday, Judge Jorge Chavez ordered Vizcarra jailed for five months, saying he is a flight risk. He stands accused of accepting bribes during his tenure as governor of the Moquegua region 11 years ago.
Vizcarra is the fifth ex-president to be detained in Peru, which has been rocked by numerous scandals and political crises over the last several years. Peru has had six presidents since 2018.
For his part, Vizcarra has denied the charges against him, stating that they are a form of political persecution. He had planned to run for president again in 2026.
A judge had turned down a previous request to detain him in June, but the public ministry insisted that he was a flight risk and appealed the decision. His lawyers have said that he will seek to appeal his detention.
Three other ex-presidents, Alejandro Toledo, Ollanta Humala and Pedro Castillo, are currently being held in a special facility built for former leaders of the country in a police base in the capital of Lima.
Vizcarra, who was investigated and removed from office by Congress in 2020, will likely join them there. Critics have accused Peru’s Congress of launching scurrilous impeachment efforts against political rivals, using vague charges such as “moral incapacity”.
The facility first housed former President Alberto Fujimori, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2009 for human rights abuses committed during his period of dictatorial rule. He was controversially pardoned in 2023, in defiance of an order from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and died of cancer the following year.
President Dina Boluarte, who came into office after former President Castillo was imprisoned after trying to dissolve Congress, signed a law earlier today offering amnesty to government security officials and aligned groups who committed rights abuses during the decades-long campaign against the Shining Path armed group.
Rights groups condemned the amnesty bill as a form of impunity for serious abuses.
