A judge on Thursday ordered former Salvadoran president Francisco Flores to stand trial for allegedly diverting US$15 million in donations for earthquake victims to his personal and political party accounts during his term in office between 1999 and 2004.
Judge Miguel Angel Garcia said the proceedings would be open to the public.
The 56-year-old Flores has been under house arrest since November last year on charges of embezzlement and illegal enrichment involving funds Taiwan donated to support earthquake victims in 2001.
Photo: Reuters
The former president has said he gave the money to the proper recipients, but there was no record in the treasury because it was a personal donation. He has not said who received the money.
Prosecutors charge that some went to El Salvador’s main conservative party, the Republican National Alliance.
Flores also faces charges of disobedience for failing to report to a special committee of the Legislative Assembly, which was investigating what happened to the Taiwanese millions.
The Prosecutor General’s Office did not ask that Flores be jailed during the proceedings.
The investigation began with a US Department of the Treasury suspicious activities report, which was revealed by former Salvadoran president Mauricio Funes of the Farbundo Marti National Liberation Front. He left office last year.
Flores is the second former president in Central America to face corruption charges.
Former Guatemalan president Otto Perez Molina was forced to resign from office earlier this year and has been jailed on fraud, conspiracy and bribery charges related to a customs scandal, in which businesses allegedly paid kickbacks to government officials in exchange for lower import duties.
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