The Judicial Investigation Organization (OIJ) and the Public Ministry arrested a judge named Pérez, 2 paralegals named Mora and a lawyer named Tejada, on the grounds of corruption.
According to the OIJ, these 4 people executed corrupt behavior affecting public probity, charging to help suspects in criminal cases.
We determined that the judge held meetings with the lawyer thanks to Mora. We managed to verify that there were payments, bribes and money transfers,”
said Walter Espinoza, director of the OIJ.
Espinoza spoke of a crime organization that began operating since 2014 within the Judiciary.
In 2014, the prosecution was an investigation a man named Restrepo, who escaped from a hospital in Panama and was wanted in France for drug trafficking. The prosecution found that Restrepo’s group had 2 carwashes and intended to raid them. But they didn’t get the order to do so. We were told that the lawyer (Tejada) was asking for 15 million colones in exchange for avoiding that raid,”
said Jorge Chavarría, attorney general.
Chavarría explained that there are three cases where they found that these subjects negotiated with the suspects to help them in exchange for hefty sums.
One of those cases had to do with an American who was being investigated for sexual offenses and in which the suspects provided assistance to the accused so that he could leave the country. However, they did not succeed, despite receiving the payment.
A different case was that of an investment company that won a trial through the legal representation of Tejada. However, the assistant named Mora speed up the payment of fees.
As a reward for its support in the latter case, the suspects received lots, trips to Spain and cash to buy cars.
For this case, the Judicial Inspection opened a case against the three officials.
Apparently, Tejada also worked for the Judiciary years ago.