The Prosecutor’s Office asserts that Nicolás Petro has “hidden and covered up” sums of up to 500 million pesos given by politicians.
The lawyer of Nicolás Fernando Petro Burgos, Diego Henao, resigned from being the defense of the first-born son of the President Gustavo Petro, in the case before him regarding alleged money laundering and illicit enrichment.
“This decision will respond to a change in the defense strategy which I considered, after deep and respectful consideration of the process, to be out of the question,” Henao said.
Henao resigns the same day that the attorney general, Luz Adriana Camargo, said that an “approach” has been made to the defense of the son of the head of state to assess the possibility of a preliminary agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office.
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“Yes, there is an approach, certainly, from the lawyers of Mr. Nicolás Petro; “Several meetings were held with the director of the investigation and the director of money laundering, in light of the charges that Nicolás Petro is facing,” Camargo told reporters.
The President’s eldest son is prosecuted for money laundering and unlawful enrichment of a public servant, charges to which the Office of the Prosecutor has added a breach of personal data, since last year, when the investigations against him began, he was a representative of the Assembly of the Atlantico Department (north).
After his arrest in July of last year, the son of the President Petro, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, admitted that he received money for the campaign of Samuel Santander Lopesierra – extradited and convicted in the United States for drug trafficking in 2007 – and Gabriel Hilsaca Acosta, son of controversial businessman Alfonso ‘Turco’ Hilsaca.
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The Prosecutor’s Office asserts that Nicolás Petro has “hidden and covered up” sums of up to 500 million pesos (about 119,000 dollars today) delivered by politicians such as Máximo Noriega, accused of being an intermediary between possible drug traffickers and the son of the President.
It is thought that some of that money went into Petro Presidente’s campaign in 2022, although Nicolás Petro confirmed in an interview with Semana magazine that the president did not know.
Nicolás Petro has been in his residence in Barranquilla under house arrest since the middle of last year.
EFE