(CNN) — The prosecutor’s office on Monday called for the impeachment of pro-government senator Gustavo Penadés, one of the main government officials in the Uruguayan parliament, so that he could be investigated for various allegations of sexual abuse of minors, said the spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, Javier Benech. Penadés has publicly denied the allegations.
Prosecutor Alicia Ghione has been investigating the case, which began after the public declarations of Romina Celeste Papasso, a militant of the ruling National Party, the same as Penadés. Papasso said the senator paid him for sex when she was 13, 17 years ago. Based on that complaint, at least seven other teenagers and people who are now adults also denounced Penadés before the same prosecutor’s office, which took their statement, said the spokesman.
On Thursday, May 25, it was his turn to declare a senator, one of the main pro-government leaders in the Uruguayan Senate. After testifying for an hour and a half, Penadés told the press: “I regret nothing because I have not committed any crime.” At the end of March, after the first complaint against him, Penadés gave the press a message denying the allegations of sexual exploitation.
Both the interior minister, Luis Alberto Heber, and the president Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou have given their support to the senator. Heber noticed that he stood behind the “friend” of him. “I continue to support and believe in my friend’s version,” he told El Espectador radio. Something similar was declared by the president of Uruguay in a press conference on May 11th. He stated that he has known the senator for 30 years and that “he would be a bad friend if I didn’t believe him, he would not be a friend, he would not trust him”.
The Prosecutor’s spokesman clarified that the request for removal serves to “deepen the investigation” and does not in itself mean “an attribution of responsibility”. Based on the impeachment request of the Prosecutor’s Office, the Supreme Court of Justice must send the request to Parliament, which needs a special two-thirds majority to remove legal protection from the legislator and submit to Justice like any citizen.
