Tackling corruption

First task for Peru’s new justice minister

Ag AFP

LIMA: Lawyer Vicente Zeballos took office Saturday as Peru’s new justice minister, facing the immediate challenge of dealing with a scandal over judges allegedly selling lighter sentences for a price.

The previous justice minister, Salvador Heresi, resigned last week after investigative website IDL-Reporteros in Peru published more than 20 tapes, on some of which Heresi and different judges appear to discuss arranging lenient treatment in exchange for cash or favors. The scandal sparked street protests in several cities and prompted President Martin Vizcarra, in office only since March, to promise sweeping judicial reforms. Prime Minister Cesar Villanueva told Radio RPP that Zeballos had the legal and political experience to lead the Justice Ministry and “help a lot with reform.”

Supreme Court president Duberli Rodriguez, as well as an appeals-court judge and three members of the National Council of Magistrates — which appoints judges and prosecutors — have resigned or been suspended as the scandal has reverberated through the Andean country of 32 million.