Journalist and regional candidate Susy Aponte murdered in Caraz: three arrested for alleged contract killing
Peru's public prosecutor's office is investigating the murder of Susy Aponte, a candidate for governor of Ancash, as an alleged contract killing. Three people have been detained, one of Venezuelan nationality.
Public prosecutor's office reclassifies regional candidate's death in Ancash as contract killing
The Second Corporate Provincial Criminal Prosecutor's Office of Huaylas has assumed investigation of the murder of Susy Aponte, journalist and candidate for the Regional Government of Ancash, following the armed attack registered on Saturday in the Andean city of Caraz, according to infobae.com.
The offence was reclassified as alleged contract killing—homicide for hire—and three people were confirmed detained in flagrante delicto as suspected perpetrators of the attack.
Two of those detained have been identified: Luis Iván Obispo Díaz, of Venezuelan nationality, and Ronald José Toro Artila, of Peruvian nationality. The nation's prosecutor, Tomás Gálvez, told broadcaster RPP that "we have already detained the hitman, we have also detained an alleged financier (...), and also another person who was previously transporting the hitman". "So far, there are three people detained and the case is being clarified", Gálvez added.
Provincial prosecutor Raúl Godos and assistant prosecutor Sheyla Romero are directing urgent proceedings in the case, including taking statements from victims who were wounded by gunshot, reviewing surveillance camera footage from the hotel where one of the attackers allegedly stayed on 15 September, atomic absorption testing, and an autopsy of Aponte's body.
The candidate, known for her news programme as 'China Polo', was visiting Caraz market with members of her political campaign when an alleged hitman shot her in the head. The attack also left other people present at the location wounded, according to reports from local media.
Aponte was running for the Regional Government of Ancash in elections scheduled for 4 October. Initially, the Specialist Prosecutor's Office for Violence against Women and Members of the Family Group of Huaylas had opened a preliminary investigation for the crime of feminicide.
In messages posted on her social media before the attack, Aponte accused general Víctor Revoredo Farfán, director of Criminal Investigation of Peru's National Police, of having "ordered an attempt" on her life. The journalist stated that she had reported alleged links between police chiefs and the criminal gang Los Pulpos, and said she had been warned of the threat by inmates from three Peruvian prisons.
Revoredo was reassigned from his position by means of a supreme resolution published on Sunday; his new post is director of International Affairs of the National Police. The same resolution provides for the reassignment of 19 other generals and three lieutenant generals of the institution. General Ricardo Espinoza, who was in command of the police region of La Libertad—one of the jurisdictions with the highest rate of organised crime in the country—assumes the new role of director of Criminal Investigation.
Source: Google News PE — Crime