Colombia senator surrenders to justice to face 'parapolitics' charges .
Colombia senator surrenders to justice to face 'parapolitics' charges .
Sunday, 24 February 2013 11:21 Adriaan Alsema
A Colombian senator surrendered to justice and was subsequently jailed Saturday over charges she sought political benefits through alliances with paramilitary death squads.
U Party Senator Piedad Zuccardi reportedly arrived at the main office of Colombia's Prosecutor General's Office at 10AM Saturday presumably after returning from Costa Rica where the lawmaker was at the time a judge warranted her arrest for her alleged ties to a death squad active in the northern Bolivar department.
According to Bogota newspaper El Tiempo, Zuccardi left Colombia only days before the Supreme Court planned to rule on the requested arrest warrant. The senator went to Costa Rica where former Senator Mario Uribe, cousin of former President Alvaro Uribe and currently in jail for "parapolitics," unsuccessfully sought asylum.
Following Costa Rica, the then-fugitive senator went to Panama which in 2010 granted political asylum to a former director of Colombia's now-defunct intelligence agency DAS while the former intelligence executive was investigated for her role in the illegal wiretapping of Supreme Court justices, congressmen and presumed critics of Uribe, El Tiempo reported.
More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/28281-colombia-senator-surrenders-to-justice-to-face-parapolitics-charges.html
