After years of investigation, the Prosecutor's Office has finally filed formal charges against former Costa Rican President Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (1998-2002) and 10 others for their alleged involvement in a high-reaching corruption scandal.
The Prosecutor's Office has prepared formal charges against Rodríguez, which, the daily La Nación reported this week, include one count of aggravated corruption and four counts of having accepted illegal payments. The Prosecutor's Office is accusing Rodríguez of receiving $800,000 from the French telecom firm Alcatel in connection with a government contract, according to La Nación.
Judicial Branch spokesman Fabián Barrantes couldn't officially confirm the charges, since they still haven't been presented before a judge, he said. He did confirm that the Prosecutor's Office has begun filing charges against Rodríguez.
The Prosecutor's Office has been investigating Rodríguez on suspicion of corruption since 2004, when La Nación broke a series of stories that implicated him and two other ex-Presidents in corruption scandals.
The charges come nearly three years after the scandal broke over alleged payments government officials received in exchange for awarding Alcatel a $149 million contract. Investigative reports La Nación ran in 2004 prompted state prosecutors to probe Rodríguez and other officials.
Barrantes told The Tico Times the Prosecutor's Office has informed the civil parties affected in the case – the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), the state telecom monopoly, and the Government Attorney's Office – that they have until Friday to decide whether they want to file a private case that would be added onto the state's criminal charges, or a civil complaint for monetary damages. |
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