The Supreme Court of El Salvador sentenced former President "Tony" to 10 years in prison

[Inkriql]

The Supreme Court of El Salvador made firm this Thursday the sentence to 10 years in prison of the former president of that country, Antonio "Tony" Saca. The highest court found him guilty along with six other former officials diverting more than USD 300 million from state coffers. Consequently, Saca was also sentenced to respond civilly for an amount exceeding USD 260.7 million. The rest is distributed among the other condemned.

The sentence confirms the criminal decision of the two previous judicial instances. In addition, he addressed the decision of an Appeals Chamber to suspend the withdrawal of the stolen funds. The court had decided in July that the decision should be taken civilly. But the Supreme Court, as a final instance, determined that it must do so once the judgment is issued.

The other officials will face the following sentences: the former secretary of Communications, Julio Rank, received five years in jail and the obligation to reintegrate 8.3 million; former private secretary Elmer Charlaix, ten years in prison and return 15 million; while the former Secretary of Youth, César Funes, five years in jail and return 886,697,697.

Francisco Rodríguez Arteaga, head of the financial unit of the Presidential House, received a three-year sentence for the crime of peculation, and for money and asset laundering another three years, while Jorge Alberto Herrera, treasurer of the same, was convicted to three years in prison for peculate.

Pablo Gómez, accountant of the former private secretary of the Presidency, was also charged with money laundering and peculation but did not agree to plead guilty or negotiate with the prosecution, so he decided to undergo the ordinary trial and received a sentence of 16 years in prison. Rodríguez Arteaga must return seven million dollars, Herrera three million and Gomez five million.

Saca, 54, ruled the country from 2004 to 2009. He was arrested on October 30, 2016, during his son's wedding. The catalytic event was the detection of a transfer for more than USD 15 million to the account of his former private secretary Elmer Charlaix, sent to trial for illicit enrichment in the middle of that month.

Initially Saca denied his guilt and claimed to be a victim of political persecution. But after reaching an agreement with the prosecution, he told how he created from the Executive the scheme to appropriate public money. Specifically, he detailed the scheme to hide money from several ministries in a reserved account of the Presidential House, known as a secret game, which by law was not susceptible to external audits and is supposed to be paid by the Intelligence Agency of the State (OIE).

He also explained how he ordered his private secretary to create subsidiary accounts of the government house to take money from personal accounts, and how with these funds he financed his own radio companies, paid bribes to journalists and, in the end, sumptuous homes were built in San Salvador and on the country's beaches.

In this way, Saca became the third former Salvadoran president to be prosecuted for illicit enrichment or for diverting public resources during his term. The others are Francisco Flores (1999-2004), who died of a stroke while in family roots, and Mauricio Funes (2009-2014), who is isolated in Nicaragua.