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Costa Rica Presents Charges
Alcatel Case
The
Fiscalía (prosecutors) in Costa
Rica presented their first
criminal charges after three
years of probing alleged bribery
involving the Latin American arm
of French telecommunications
company Alcatel, an official
said Thursday.
Fabian Barrantes, a spokesman
for Fiscalía, confirmed charges
were filed Thursday against
Hernan Bravo Trejos, a former
executive of Costa Rica's
state-run telecom company, the
Instituto Costarricense de
Electricidad (ICE), but said the
law prevented him from
confirming specifics of the
charges.
The daily Spanish language
newspaper Al Dia reported that
Bravo Trejos was charged with
corruption for allegedly
accepting a payment of us$1.05
million in exchange for his
support for an Alcatel bid on a
cellular telephone contract in
2001.
The scandal has mired former top
officials, including former
President Miguel Angel
Rodriguez, who served from
1998-2002 and later resigned as
head of the Organization of
American States in 2004 to face
corruption charges in Costa
Rica.
Al Dia said that one of the
witnesses who will be called in
the case against Bravo Trejos is
another former ICE executive,
who has accused Rodriguez of
demanding a cut of another
us$2.5 million bribe.
Rodriguez's lawyer, Eduardo
Araya, told the newspaper El
Monumental Thursday that he
expects charges to be filed
against his client "at any
moment."
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