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Calderón: Five More Months of
House Arrest
Last week, former president
Miguel Angel Rodríguez was under
pressure by the Fiscalía to
return him to prison as his
house arrest order was expiring.
The Fiscalía had made a request
to the court to send Rodríguez
back to jail, though a judge
decided however to extend his
house arrest for another four
months, a decision he is now
appealing.
Tomorrow, former president
Rafael Angel Calderón's house
arrest order expires and is
expected to be extended for
another five months, even though
the Fiscalía is requesting
preventive detention (prison)
his case also.
Both Calderón and Rodríguez
spent months in the La Reforma
prison in Alajuela at the same
time, though separated from each
other, while the Fiscalía
continues their investigation of
their respective cases.
Calderón, now 55 years of age,
was president between 1990 and
1994 and is accused of accepting
a commission of us$520.000
dollars on a loan by the
government of Finland to the aja
Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS),
to purchase medical equipment,
arranged through the Corporacion
Fischel, which operates the
largest drug store chain in the
country.
Rodríguez, who governed between
1998 and 2002, is accused of
accepting a kickback in the
Instituto Costarricense de
Electricidad (ICE) purchase of
400.000 GSM cellular lines from
the French telecommunications
firm Alcatel. Rodríguez' friend
and former minister in his
government, José Antonio Lobo,
gave him up.
In other judicial news, the
Ministro of Justicia (Justice
Minister) personally intervened
in helping former Minister of
Labour Farid Ayales leave the
Centro de Atención Institucional
San Rafael, in Alajuela for a
halfway house in Goicocechea.
Ayales will be allowed to spend
his day on the job at a law
office but must return to the
halfway house each night,
according to Alexander Obando,
director of the Instituto
Nacional de Criminología of the
Ministerio de Justicia.
Obando was quoted as saying that
the change was made for medical
reasons. Ayales was said to be
ill and had lost weight during
his incarceration.
Ayales entered the prison system
to serve out a four year
sentence for "delito de
concusión" - when a public
official obligates another to
accept a bribe - handed
out in March of 2003.
The former minister was serving
out his sentence under house
arrest when it was revoked last
November when he was found in a
San Juan de Tibás bar.
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