San Salvador, Jul 27 (EFE) .- A peace court installed on Tuesday the initial hearing against 10 former Salvadoran officials, including former President Salvador Sánchez Cerén – absent in the process -, on charges of corruption for allegedly receiving irregular payments in the administration of Mauricio Funes (2009-2014).
One of the prosecutors in the case – whose name was reserved – told journalists before the start of the hearing that the Prosecutor’s Office has “sufficient probative evidence” and that it will request provisional arrest for the defendants present.
The former head of the Treasury Carlos Cáceres, the former Minister of Health Violeta Menjívar, the former vice ministers Hugo Flores and Erlinda Handal, and the former FMLN deputy Calixto Mejía (2014-2017), all captured on Thursday 22.
José Emilio González, Menjívar’s defense attorney, told the press that the defense will request alternative measures to the detention for the former Ministers of Health and Finance, and for the former Deputy Minister Handal for “health complications.”
He indicated that the Public Ministry has requested the partial reservation of the case because “there are two judged witnesses who testified in the Funes case.”
Those absent from the hearing are former President Sánchez Cerén, who sent a lawyer to represent him, and four other people who are outside the country, and for whom the Prosecutor’s Office has requested that international arrest warrants be issued.
They are José López Juárez, former president of the Executive Port Commission (CEPA) and the former private secretary of the Presidency Manuel Melgar, in addition to the former ministers of Public Works and Environment, Gerson Martínez and Lina Pohl, respectively.
This case stems from the investigation against Funes for the alleged misappropriation of $ 351 million from the state budget.
Funes has lived in Nicaragua since 2016 and in 2019 received the nationality of that Central American country, whose Constitution prohibits the extradition of its citizens.
According to the prosecution’s accusation, Sánchez Cerén would have received $ 530,000 as a bonus when he served as vice president of Funes. While the other former officials would have received amounts ranging between $ 100,000 and $ 500,000.
The whereabouts of Sánchez Cerén, also a former guerrilla commander of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), who would have left the country at the end of 2020, is currently unknown.
Sánchez Cerén became the fourth former president of the Salvadoran democratic stage to be required by the Prosecutor’s Office on charges of corruption on July 22.
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