The Colombian Prosecutor’s Office presented this Monday an accusation of illicit enrichment and money laundering against Nicolás Petro Burgos, the eldest son of President Gustavo Petro, for which the president’s son will go to trial.
That organization detailed in a statement that “it filed a document of accusation before the Criminal Courts of the Specialized Circuit of Barranquilla (…) against Mr. Petro Burgos for the crimes charged” and that a robe will appoint the judge who will carry out the trial. .
On July 29, Nicolás Petro was arrested by the Prosecutor’s Office when he was investigated for the possible crime of money laundering and illicit enrichment. In the same operation, his ex-wife Daysuris Vásquez was arrested, who at the beginning of the year accused him of receiving a large sum of money from a drug trafficker for the Colombian president’s campaign.
Days later, on August 4, it was learned that Nicolás Petro had admitted that the electoral campaign of his father, Gustavo Petro, was financed by illicit money, according to prosecutors. According to prosecutor Mario Andrés Burgos, the leader of the investigation, the young man admitted that the unjustified increases in his assets came from two drug traffickers detained in the United States: Santander Lopesierra and Gabriel Hilasca. The money that these criminals had given him was quantified at $270,000.
Finally, on August 7, Nicolás Petro was released on conditional release after agreeing to cooperate with the authorities, so the prosecutor recognized that it was not necessary to keep him detained in police facilities or under house arrest, as the prosecutor’s office claimed.
The conditions of Nicolás Petro’s release do not allow him to leave the country or participate in political activities, and this Monday it was learned that he will have to appear before the judge.
