The ex-president Alejandro Toledo He returns today to the United States courts to request once again that he be allowed to leave prison. His defense has proposed a preventive detention with the use of electronic shackle and the argument is that the closure affects your mental health.
At the Northern District Court hearing, scheduled for 12:30 p.m. (Peruvian time), the defense of Alejandro Toledo It seeks to prove that imprisonment, despite the change in prison, still affects your mental health and, therefore, should be considered a “special” circumstance to allow you to take the process out of prison.
-Previous Note-
The Toledo lawyers that the United States government provides for free have asked Judge Vince Chhabria for the possibility of facing his case with house arrest and with an electronic shackle for remote monitoring. The proposal was made after a first attempt to obtain bail was rejected in the first instance by Judge Thomas Hixson, who is in charge of the extradition process. The judicial decision was appealed and now Toledo Manrique hopes to reverse his situation in the second instance.
Judge Chhabria will evaluate your request for house arrest with electronic shackle. The magistrate ordered the change of prison because he considered that the isolation regime he had Alejandro Toledo in Santa Rita I was very close to torture.
-Best prison conditions-
In Maguire, the former governor has a prison regime that keeps him away from gangs, can receive visitors, make phone calls and has access to a TV room. “Toledo is entitled to three or more hours outside his cell a day, which is equal to or more recreation time than the general population of Maguire,” said federal prosecutor Elise LaPunzina in an official letter he sent to court to stop the liberation of Toledo.
Due to the better prison conditions, Judge Chhabria had indicated in November last year that he was inclined to keep Toledo in detention. However, he asked for more time to make a final decision and for that he ordered that today’s session be held.
At this hearing, the prosecutor’s office and the defense of Toledo must present all the evidence, testimonies and psychological skills necessary to determine if the confinement in Maguire continues to affect the mental health of the accused.
The defense will present Dr. Craig Haney to talk about the impacts of the prison on the mental health of Toledo, and Martin Carnoy, a Stanford professor, his longtime friend and one of the guarantors of his bond. The prosecution, meanwhile, will take four Maguire employees, including the nurse, to testify about the benefits the former president now has.
-The extradition process-
In addition to seeking Toledo’s freedom under house arrest, his lawyers are also focused on the extradition process that will just begin tomorrow, Thursday. At the hearing scheduled for 1:00 p.m. (Peruvian time), Judge Hixson will evaluate the defense’s request for the prosecution to provide 16 pages of documentary information. The defense strategy to try to overthrow the extradition request seems to focus on questioning the documents that support it.
Prosecutor LaPunzina has rejected the request and has described it as a “fishing expedition” (expression that implies a blind search for information in Anglo-Saxon law). “The prosecution has previously delivered to Toledo the copy of the request for extradition of Peru along with its evidence […]. Toledo has no right to anything else, and his request to force [a la entrega de documentos] must be denied, ”argued the prosecutor in January.
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