LIMA (Reuters) -The prosecutor’s office in Peru has “definitively” shelved a genocide case against President Dina Boluarte, Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzen said on Tuesday.
The case was opened after anti-government protests in late 2022 and early 2023 left dozens of people dead at the beginning of Boluarte’s term in office.
The prosecutor’s office published a statement confirming that the genocide case was dismissed, but noted there are ongoing cases related to homicide and serious injuries against the president and other officials in power at the time.
The office said it has filed a constitutional complaint with Congress against Boluarte and the officials involved regarding the 44 homicides and 116 people injured during the clashes between protesters and security forces.
The president’s lawyer, Joseph Campos, told local radio station RPP that he hopes Congress will also dismiss the homicide and injuries cases, because in his opinion Boluarte took political decisions to address the violent protests.
Boluarte has denied the prosecution’s accusations and says that security forces acted proportionally during the protests, when demonstrators set fire to public and private institutions.
(Reporting by Marco Aquino in LimaWriting by Aida Pelaez-FernandezEditing by Alexander Villegas, Brendan O’Boyle and Matthew Lewis)
