Colombia Prosecutors Deny Pressure in Nicolás Petro Case
The Attorney-General's Office denies any pressure in the Nicolás Petro case, calling the former prosecutor's allegations subjective. The former prosecutor insists she faced pressure to drop a charge. The post Colombia Prosecutors Deny Pressure in Nicolás Petro Case appeared first on The Rio Times .
Colombia’s Attorney-General’s Office has firmly denied any pressure exerted on former prosecutor Lucy Laborde regarding the money-laundering case of her client, Nicolás Petro, the son of President Gustavo Petro. The office dismissed allegations from Laborde as subjective interpretations with no supporting basis, stating that her decisions were respected and she was never influenced.
Laborde claimed she was pressured to drop the money-laundering charge, but the Attorney-General’s Office rejected this, explaining that her departure from the case resulted from a competitive public examination called a concurso de méritos. According to the office, Laborde did not hold a specialized prosecutor position and therefore was not subject to arbitrary removal.
The dispute centers around a meeting, described by Laborde, to discuss potentially changing the legal characterization of the case, which required a judge’s approval. No resolution was reached, and the case remains at the accusation stage, with charges of money laundering and illicit enrichment pending. Nicolás Petro, accused of Lavado de activos (money laundering) and Illicit enrichment (enrichimiento ilícito), has not yet had a trial as no prosecutor has been sworn in. The case is currently open, and Nicolás Petro is presumed innocent until proven otherwise.
Written by urgent.news from The Rio Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
