- Nineteen prisoners use cutlery to break out of cells at Winchester prison
- France wants progress in Ukraine before Russia returns to G7
- Italy president begins talks to seek way out of government crisis
- Italian PM expected to resign as political chaos deepens
- Russia says US cruise missile test ‘regrettable’
- Kremlin - No date set for Normandy talks on Ukraine despite Macron meeting
- Egypt court hands out 6 death sentences on terror charges
- Putin says Russian nuclear explosion poses no threat
- Russian panel eyes alleged foreign interference in protests
- Gran Canaria wildfire triggers evacuation of thousands of people
- PM Johnson calls on Germany and France to compromise on Brexit
- Sudan's ex-president Bashir arrives at corruption trial
TEHRAN, June 09 - Prosecutors in El Salvador have ordered the arrests of former President Mauricio Funes and 30 members of his inner circle on a range of corruption charges for allegedly siphoning $351 million from public coffers, the Attorney General's Office announced Friday.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - The 31 arrest orders include Funes' private secretary, his long-time partner Ada Mitchelle Guzman Siguenza, his ex-wife Regina Canas and two of Funes' sons.
"In the government of Mauricio Funes there were serious and outrageous cases of corruption in which they extracted $351 million from public accounts," said Salvadoran Attorney General Douglas Menendez.
Funes, 58, immediately mounted a defense via Twitter, taking on charges one by one and asking "where was the crime?" and "what does that have to do with me?"
"It stands out that the (Attorney General's Office) has only made incriminations without presenting a single piece of evidence against me," Funes wrote.
Melendez said that Funes stole $292 million from El Salvador's mortgage bank, including millions carried out as cash in plastic garbage bags.
Jorge Cortez, head of the Attorney General's financial investigation unit, said that Funes' partner, Guzman Siguenza used some of the diverted funds for cosmetic surgery in Beverly Hills.
Funes held office from 2009 to 2014 as president for the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, and has been living in exile in Nicaragua since 2016. He has alleged that the government of President Salvador Sanchez Ceren, who is from the same party, is trying to settle political scores in pursuing him.
Melendez said prosecutors had alerted Interpol that Funes was "a person of interest" and the government would seek his extradition from Nicaragua.
Melendez declined to respond to Funes' assertions that the moves against him were a political vendetta.
Source: AP
Your Comment