The prosecutor who is carrying out the investigation, Gabriela Fossati, had summoned him as a witness, but a few minutes after Leal began to testify, Fossati ended the hearing, since he intended to change his status from witness to being investigated.
Fossati had summoned him to testify after the complaint by Alejandro Astesiano, the former head of presidential custody, who said that Leal had visited his parents at the border.
As soon as he began to testify as a witness, Fossati understood that he could not rule out that Leal had no intention of hindering the investigation, and for this reason he decided to call him again, this time as an investigator.
Astesiano’s father, Raúl Astesiano, said in statements to the newspaper El País that Leal fell into his house by surprise and that he did not offer him money, as his son denounced.
The president of the Broad Front, Fernando Pereira, gave a press conference in which he supported Leal, saying that he acted independently and that, like any citizen, he had the right to meet with whomever he wanted.
The lawyer defending Leal, Diego Camaño, said that he did not understand what the apparently criminal facts were for which his client was being cited as investigated. For this reason, he went to the prosecutor’s office and presented a note questioning him.
They will indict another ex-consul
The Prosecutor’s Office requested a hearing to charge the Uruguayan ex-consul in Russia Gustavo Piegas on March 7. If the request is formalized, Piegas – who currently holds a position at the Uruguayan Embassy in Washington DC – will be the second diplomat to be investigated in this case.
Stéfano Di Conza, also a former Uruguayan consul in Russia, was indicted in October for 14 crimes of fraud and 14 of assumption of marital status.
