is not in danger, as the document includes "open clauses" establishing that if new criminal offenses —linked to the Brazilian company— are found, addendums can be subscribed to the accord standardized by the Judiciary, former Supreme Prosecutor Avelino Guillen affirmed Friday.
"If new evidence comes up pointing out that the construction company committed offenses in other projects —such as bribe payments— in exchange for the awarding of projects, then an addendum or additional accord should be signed, which includes the new facts to the
agreement recently standardized by the Judicial Branch," Guillen told El Peruano official gazette.
"In this sense, it (new evidence) would not affect the accord (…). What is appropriate here is for the Prosecutor's Office to corroborate the information that has been spread by diverse media outlets (…)," he added.
Likewise, the former supreme prosecutor recalled Odebrecht shall cooperate with the new investigations carried out by the Public Ministry. In Peru, the Public Ministry is independent from the Executive Branch.
For his part, ex-College of Lawyers (CAL) Chairman Pedro Angulo indicated that the people claiming the agreement could collapse are expressing "their wishes" for the case.
Possibilities
"There are two possibilities if new facts are discovered: it (the construction company) acknowledges them or it does not acknowledge them. If the latter, or if it does not have judgment elements to provide, then the collaboration (agreement) could not be expanded (…)," the ex-CAL chairman expressed.
"Thus, the cases would have to be assessed in parallel by the Public Ministry, without the collaboration of the construction company," he said.
Interrogation rounds
Payments
Odebrecht
As is known, the Brazilian construction giant admitted to having paid millions in bribes to government officials in Peru, in order to secure public-works contracts.
As a result,
Odebrecht benefited from over US$143 million between 2005 and 2014 in Peru, according to the U.S. Justice Department.