Ex-president on run in Panama facing corruption trial

FORMER SALVADORAN   president Francisco Flores (1999-2004) who was at one time a fugitive in Panama and photographed with Panama ex-president Mireya Moscoso, was sent to trial Thursday, Dec. 3, on charges of corruption and money laundering.

The offences were  allegedly committed by appropriating and diverting $15 million donated by Taiwan to social projects after two earthquakes that hit the country in 2001.

The judge of the Seventh Court of Instruction, Miguel Angel Garcia Arguello, ruled that “it is appropriate that it go to the next procedural stage, this being the stage of judgment” against Flores on charges of embezzlement, money laundering, illicit enrichment and disobedience.

Flores was charged in 2014 with appropriating   $5 million and diverting $10 million to an account of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena) that brought him to power,  and is now in opposition.

After being on the run for about four months, Flores gave himself up on September 5, 2014.  A judge gave him house arrest, but that decision was overturned by a higher court and he was moved to a police cell.

He was returned  to  house arrest in October 2014 after being hospitalized for 19 days with thrombosis in the leg.

Flores is the first El Salvador  president in recent history sent to trial for corruption and money laundering.