Journalist calling to assassinate Peruvian president might be tried

Lima, Jan 19 (Prensa Latina) Peruvian Defense Minister Juan Carrasco said on Wednesday that a journalist who called to assassinate President Pedro Castillo on Twitter might be sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Carrasco condemned the call by journalist Jimmy Daves for “a national hero” to kill the president with a bullet, as happened with US President John Kennedy.

“In this case, we are talking about an instigation to assassination, which is established in the Penal Code, and it has a sentence of 25 to 35 years,” the defense minister said in a television statements from his home, where he has been isolated since Tuesday due to Covid- 19.

He added that no one deserves to be killed or injured in their physical and psychological integrity, and warned that freedom of the press is respected in Peru, but it is not absolute.

The minister noted that he was also concerned that almost no newspaper is talking today about the case of journalist Daves, who is the editor of the “Trome” tabloid, which is attached to the country’s largest media group headed by El Comercio newspaper.

He noted that in any country in the world the presidential investiture is respected and those who insult the government are sentenced to prison or a fine, and in Peru “we must begin to respect ourselves.”

He confirmed that Minister of Labor Betssy Chavez asked the Public Ministry to investigate Daves, who “is calling to assassinate and that he cannot go unpunished.”