The Public Ministry reported that Leonardo Labrador, former head of Epidemiology, and Ana Lorena Chang, former head of Public Health of the Metropolitan Region of the Ministry of Health (Minsa), will be seated before a Court of Guarantees at 11:00 am this Wednesday.
In this hearing, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office will request that charges be brought against them and precautionary measures applied, after both former officials were apprehended on Tuesday morning.
The married couple is investigated for alleged influence peddling as a result of their relationship with a company in charge of carrying out swab tests on travelers bound for Taboga Island.
The news of their arrest was given this Tuesday by the attorney general in charge, Javier Caraballo, who informed the media that after several months of investigation (since August 2021) the prosecution managed to “gather evidence” that allows him to apprehend them.
Caraballo also indicated that the two former officials had allegedly committed crimes against public health and the corruption of public servants.
On Tuesday, after a search proceeding at the residence of Labrador and Chang, in the San Antonio neighborhood, San Miguelito district, both were transferred to the headquarters of the Judicial Investigation Directorate in Ancón. After 12:00 noon, they were taken to a Minsa health center in El Chorrillo, in the capital, for a routine medical check-up.
A third person was also apprehended. Caraballo revealed that she is a woman who worked as a medical technologist for the Minsa, and did not reveal her name.
Labrador and Chang were dismissed by Health Minister Luis Francisco Sucre amid the scandal.
