Peru’s former soccer boss acquitted of two murder charges

A court in Peru has acquitted the country’s former football federation president Edwin Oviedo of the murder of two trade unionists in a long-running case, his lawyer said Thursday.

“Edwin Oviedo’s innocence has been proven,” his lawyer Cesar Nakazaki told reporters following the Superior Court’s decision in the northern region of La Libertad.

“The court decided to acquit him after verifying that the prosecution had not presented sufficient evidence,” he added.

Oviedo was accused of ordering the murder of two trade union members working for a sugar business he controlled, who were shot dead in 2012 and 2015.

The public prosecutor had requested in 2019 a 52-year prison sentence for Oviedo, who has always maintained his innocence.

The legal case forced him to resign as president of the Peruvian Football Federation in December 2018.

Peru’s national football team thrived under Oviedo’s stewardship, which began in January 2015, qualifying three years later for the World Cup for the first time in 36 years.

Oviedo spent 18 months in pre-trial detention and then another year-and-a-half under house arrest after being accused of being the ringleader of a “corruption network” and the mastermind behind the murder of the two unionists.

The prosecution claimed that Oviedo had ordered the killings in retaliation for protests organized against him at his sugar company.