Guatemala's Court Sentences Ex-President Perez Molina To 16 Years In Prison - Reports

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Guatemala's Court Sentences Ex-President Perez Molina to 16 Years in Prison - Reports

MEXICO CITY (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th December, 2022) A Guatemalan Court for High Risk Crimes has sentenced ex-President Otto Fernando Perez Molina and former Vice President Ingrid Roxana Baldetti Elias to 16 years in prison on charges of criminal conspiracy and customs fraud, the Prensa Libre newspaper reported on Wednesday.

According to the report, the court also fined Perez Molina 8.7 million quetzals ($1.1 million) for criminal conspiracy and a separate case of customs fraud.

A similar sentence was imposed on Baldetti, who was already sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2018 for fraud in the Lake Amatitlan clean-up plan, the report said.

The La Linea corruption case was launched in 2015 against Perez Molina on charges of setting up a customs corruption ring with the help of high-ranking officials in the tax and customs administration.

The country's top leaders levied illegal fees on importers in exchange for tax cuts. The president and vice president have been in pre-trial detention for seven years, and now they will have to serve another nine years in prison.

Perez Molina was president of Guatemala from 2012 to 2015. In September 2015, a criminal case was launched against the ex-president, followed by the Guatemalan Congress unanimously approving his resignation. By the end of 2015, Perez Molina was stripped of immunity and detained. The former president was the first Guatemalan leader to be put on trial during his presidential term.