The Colombian Prosecutor’s Office assigned a new prosecutor for the case against Nicolás Petro, the first-born son of President Gustavo Petro, who He is facing trial for alleged money laundering, illicit enrichment and violation of personal data within the possible irregular financing of his father’s electoral campaign that brought him to power in 2022.
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This was reported on Thursday by the prosecuting body, which chose “by automatic and random distribution” to the third specialized prosecutor of the Anti-Money Laundering Directorate, Lucy Marcela Laborde Betancourt, after the previous prosecutor, Mario Burgos, was removed from the process. Burgos was removed from the process after the National Commission of Judicial Discipline three charges were brought against him for two very serious offences and a serious offence for leaking to the media videos recorded during the investigation into the president’s son and for “undue pressure” in his interrogation.
The case of the president’s son
The president’s eldest son is being prosecuted for money laundering and illicit enrichment of public servantcharges to which the Prosecutor’s Office has added the violation of personal data, since last year, when the investigations against him began, he was a deputy in the Assembly of the department of Atlántico (north). After being arrested in July of last year, the son of the president acknowledged, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, that he received money for the campaign of the former drug trafficker Samuel Santander Lopesierra and Gabriel Hilsaca Acosta, son of the controversial businessman Alfonso ‘Turco’ Hilsaca.
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Gustavo Petro and Nicolas Petro
EFE – social networks
The Prosecutor’s Office claims that Petro Burgos “hid and concealed” sums of up to 500 million pesos (about 126,700 dollars) of money delivered by politicians such as Máximo Noriega, a leader from the coast accused of being the intermediary between alleged drug traffickers and Petro’s son. Part of that money supposedly He joined his father’s presidential campaign in 2022although Petro Burgos assured in an interview with Semana magazine that the president did not know about it.
Nicolás Petro has been under house arrest at his residence in Barranquilla since the middle of last year.
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EFE
