Wiretap fugitive jailed for 14 years

A FORMER Colombian security chief who took refuge in Panama was sentenced to 14 years in prison for wiretapping by The Colombia Supreme Court on Thursday April 30.

 María del Pilar Hurtado, was chief of intelligence under President Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010),and ccondemned for spying illegally on human rights defenders, journalists, politicians and judges.
The prosecutor, had asked for 20 years jail time for Hurtado for the wiretapping scandal, between August 2007 and October 2008.
Bernardo Moreno, the secretary general of the presidency during part of the Uribe government, who was also involved in the same plot received an 8-year sentence
Hurtado, former director of the defunct Department of Administrative Security (DAS) in Colombia, received territorial asylum in Panama on November 19, 2010, during the government of Ricardo Martinelli.
On the night of Friday January 30, 2015, she contacted the Panamanian authorities and surrendered.
An expulsion order was issued, and Hurtado was handed over to Colombian authorities at Tocumen. International left Panama in an aircraft of the government of Colombia.
The former DAS director will serve her sentence in a prison, but Moreno will be under house arrest, because he attended all the hearings. Hurtado was a fugitive from Justice
Colombia’s Public Ministry had requested house arrest for Moreno who is not considered a danger to society and may also be an important witness against former president Alvaro Uribe who like President Ricardo Martinelli has called the wiretap investigations “political Persecution”