In October of last year, the current Colombian ambassador to Venezuela, Armando Benedetti, was in the eye of the hurricane due to an operation in which the authorities advanced the seizure of an apartment in Bogotá as part of an investigation by an alleged unjustified increase in assets.
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At the time, the then senator of the Historical Pact confirmed that the extinction of ownership of this property, in the middle of a simultaneous process carried out by the Prosecutor’s Office along with the investigation carried out in the Supreme Court of Justice against him, for illicit enrichment.
This Wednesday, almost a year after this operation, the Second Court of the Specialized Domain Forfeiture Circuit in Bogotá overturned the precautionary measure of domain forfeiture on Benedetti’s apartment. Therefore, the judge ordered that the property located on third street with 85th street be returned to the ambassador.
When his property was ordered to be extinguished, Benedetti strongly questioned the current one of the Prosecutor’s Office: “The Prosecutor’s Office has just make a suspicious, excessive and illegal decision to forfeit domain against the Altos del Retiro apartment for events that occurred long before he owned it. HOW CAN I STOP THIS VULGAR PERSECUTION? I have no guarantees,” she stated.
Today’s ambassador also pointed out that domain extinction is not against him: “It is against the previous owner of whom it is adduced has not been able to prove until now the origin of the resources to acquire the apartment. I announce that I will declare myself as a victim in this process.”
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It should be remembered that although the apartment is returned to Benedetti, the illicit enrichment investigation is still open and ongoing.
