Bogotá. Colombian President Gustavo Petro has been summoned by the Supreme Court docket to testify as a part of an investigation into two congressmen allegedly concerned in a corruption scandal on the state-run Nationwide Unit for Danger and Catastrophe Administration, the excessive court docket mentioned Wednesday.
The scandal reveals irregularities within the buy of 40 tanker vans, allegedly overpriced, price almost 12 million {dollars}, which have been supposed to provide the desert division of La Guajira, one of many poorest within the nation.
Petro will make his assertion by “sworn certification,” through which he will probably be requested a questionnaire with questions from the court docket Justice of the Peace for him to reply in writing.
In Could, Petro pledged to fight corruption in his authorities and mentioned that the case of the entity in query is certainly one of “structural {and professional} corruption” that dates again to earlier governments.
The assertion was requested by the Lawyer Common’s Workplace and the protection of Congressmen Iván Identify and Andrés Calle —who served till June as presidents of the Senate and the Home of Representatives, respectively—, investigated for the case of alleged corruption within the Nationwide Unit for Danger and Catastrophe Administration (UNGRD).
Sneyder Pinilla, a former UNGRD worker underneath investigation by the Lawyer Common’s Workplace, reported within the media that a part of the cash for the acquisition of the tank vans had ended up within the private coffers of the presidents of Congress in order that they’d supposedly help the social reforms promoted by the federal government. Identify and Calle have denied this model.
The Supreme Court docket ordered a judicial inspection of the places of work of the President and the Secretary of the Senate and the Home of Representatives, the court docket’s assertion added, to acquire data on the method of the well being reforms – which have been archived by Congress – and the pension reform that turned regulation.
The Supreme Court docket introduced yesterday that it’s investigating seven different congressmen for a similar alleged corruption case.
The federal government additionally offered explanations on Wednesday a couple of new side of the corruption scandal, after Noticias Caracol revealed a video of an announcement by the previous director of UNGRD, Olmedo López, through which he urged that members of the excessive authorities ordered him to direct some contracts to finance the guerrilla group Ejército de Liberación Nacional, with which the federal government maintains a dialogue desk.
“What a grimy means to make use of one thing as sacred as peace to cut back sentences with out returning the stolen cash,” Petro questioned from X, previously Twitter, in reference to the precept of alternative that López has invoked and that provides him authorized advantages for revealing what he is aware of concerning the case.
The president additionally identified that any kind of funding for the ELN will happen in a remaining part of the peace negotiations that means the “definitive demobilization of violence and can by no means be offered by public contracts.”
The federal government’s peace delegation on the dialogue desk with the ELN additionally famous that every one actions within the peace course of have “strictly adhered to the precept of legality.”
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– 2024-07-24 00:57:48
