Peru fires attorney general over alleged corruption
The judicial board said it found links between him and a corruption ring led by one Cesar Alvarez.
LIMA (AFP) - Peru s attorney general was sacked on Wednesday on suspicion of engaging in corruption while employed in an earlier post -- an unprecedented firing of the country s top law enforcement official.
The decision against Carlos Ramos Heredia, who had been suspended from his job since December while the probe against him proceeded, was announced by a judicial oversight board. The vote in the six member body was 5-1.
Ramos can appeal the decision.
The judicial board said it found links between him and a corruption ring led by one Cesar Alvarez, the now-jailed former governor of the northern Ancash region of Peru.
Alvarez was convicted of extortion and accepting bribes in exchange for granting public works contracts in his region.
Ramos is said to have provided cover for Alvarez while serving as head of an auditing department in the attorney general s office. He rose to the top job in May 2014.
Investigators have said Ramos arranged the firing of prosecutors who were investigating Alvarez and his associates.
"It does not look good for Peru to fire its attorney general, but the reaction of correcting this is good," said lawmaker Victor Andres Garcia Belaunde, one of the people who reported the corruption scheme in which Ramos allegedly took part.
