Peru president says UN opinion could alter pardon assessment
A United Nations panel has determined that the detention of former Peruvian President Pedro Castillo is “arbitrary,” calling for his immediate release and compensation for violations of his fundamental rights under international treaties.
The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said in an opinion published Thursday that Peru failed to uphold key due process guarantees in Castillo’s arrest following his failed attempt to dissolve Congress on Dec. 7, 2022. The experts argued there was no prior judicial warrant, and said the concept of being “caught in the act of committing a crime” did not exempt the state from respecting the immunity Castillo held as the sitting president.
According to the working group, Peruvian authorities violated Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as Articles 3 and 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The report also concluded that authorities improperly bypassed Peru’s constitutional impeachment procedure, which requires lifting a president’s immunity before an arrest can occur.
President José María Balcázar said Friday that the U.N. opinion could alter the legal and constitutional framework surrounding a possible pardon for Castillo.
“Pedro Castillo’s case will have to be analyzed in light of this new U.N. decision,” Balcázar said in an interview with Radio Nacional.
Balcázar previously expressed ideological sympathy for Castillo and raised the possibility of granting him a pardon after taking office in February. He later said the issue was “not on the agenda” because no formal request had been filed and legal requirements had not been met, though the U.N. opinion could change that assessment.
Former left-wing presidential candidate Roberto Sánchez called for Castillo’s immediate release in a post on X, writing in Spanish that “the truth of the people is breaking through,” according to a translation.
By contrast, lawmakers and opposition leaders strongly rejected the U.N. findings. Several members of Congress described the opinion as “ideological interference” and noted that Peru’s Supreme Court already sentenced Castillo to 11 years, five months, and 15 days in prison for conspiracy to commit rebellion.
The legal status of the working group’s opinion under Peruvian domestic law remains contested. Critics argued the opinion carries no binding force on Peru’s domestic justice system. However, Carlos Rivera, an attorney with the Legal Defense Institute, told La República that the working group’s findings carry binding weight because Peru has ratified the international treaty that established the body.
Castillo’s legal team welcomed the opinion as a procedural victory and said it would strengthen future petitions before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Peru has six months to formally respond to the U.N. working group’s findings.
Castillo has been held at Barbadillo Prison in the Lima district of Ate since December 2022. Authorities arrested him while allegedly committing a crime, and Peru’s Supreme Court later upheld the arrest in two separate rulings. After his initial detention period expired, Peru’s judiciary ordered him held in pretrial detention for 18 months over the failed attempt to seize power. In December 2025, a special criminal court sentenced him to 11 years, five months in prison for conspiracy to commit rebellion.