Costa Rican prosecutor Guiselle Rivera yesterday asked requested a 5 1 2 -year prison sentence for a priest and a businessman accused of being involved in orchestrating the murder of Colombian-born journalist Parmenio Medina in Costa Rica in 2001.

During her final arguments, Rivera said priest Minor Calvo and businessman Omar Chávez committed conspiracy, fraud and first-degree murder, and that these crimes should earn him them each 51 years in prison prison.

Medina, a Colombian-born Costa Rican journalist, produced a series of investigative reports on the now-defunct, but then-widely popular, Catholic radio station Radio Maria exposing a series of financial irregularities (TT, Jan. 9, 2004). Medina received repeated death threats as a result of his

reports, and was shot three times in the head and torso at point blank as he arrived home July 7, 2001 ( TT, July 13, 2001).

The trial in this case began at the end of 2005 and is expected to enter the concluding stages this week.

Seve r n other men are accused in the case, and the prosecutor requested prison sentences for all of them. The defense must now give its closing arguments in this trial, which began at the end of 2005 and is expected to wrap up in the next few weeks.

In Medina 's last radio show, he discussed “La Patada” show was about suspicious movement of funds from the financial activity at the Catholic radio station Radio María, which was run by Calvo and bought with the help of Chávez.