A key witness in the corruption case of a former mayor of Peru’s capital, Lima, has been discovered useless at his home, Peruvian prosecutors say, less than three months before the trial is due to begin.
José Miguel Castro, who was residing under home arrest, was a municipality official during Susana Villarán’s time period as mayor from 2011 to 2014.
He was a co-defendant in the trial with Ms Villarán, who is accused of receiving bribes price $10m (£7.3m) from Brazilian construction corporations.
In 2019, Ms Villarán admitted to receiving funds from these firms but denied that they were bribes. Mr Castro was collaborating with prosecutors on the investigation. The cause of his death is not yet recognized.
“He was the second most important person behind Ms Villarán,” prosecutor José Domingo Pérez informed Peruvian information channel Canal N.
“We were expecting his valuable contribution” to the trial, he added.
Ms Villarán, 75, is accused of collusion, money laundering and forming a prison organisation that acquired tens of millions of {dollars} from construction firms Odebrecht – now called Novonor – and OAS.
Prosecutors said Mr Castro was the alleged prison organisation’s second-in-command.
In 2019 Ms Villarán admitted taking funds from Odebrecht and OAS to finance her 2013 mayoral marketing campaign to keep in workplace, but denied they constituted bribes.
The trial is due to begin on 23 September.
Ms Villarán is one of a quantity of Peruvian politicians implicated in the Odebrecht scandal.
In 2016 the Brazilian construction giant admitted to bribing officers across Latin America and elements of Africa in order to receive construction contracts.
A quantity of former Peruvian presidents have since been investigated, including Ollanta Humala, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison earlier this 12 months, and Alejandro Toledo, who was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison last 12 months.
Another former chief, Alan Garcia, killed himself as authorities arrived at his home to arrest him in 2019.
An investigation against another former president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, is ongoing. He denies the fees.
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