Illegal surveillance suspect gets asylum in Panama

A former director of Colombia’s central intelligence agency, under investigation in an eavesdropping and illegal surveillance scandalhas been granted political asylum in Panama.

Maria del Pilar Hurtado a lawyer  headed the Department of Administrative Security (DAS) in Colombia,  from August 2007 2008.

She is one of four former directors of the agency in charge of the Colombian intelligence services, being investigated for their roles in a scheme of eavesdropping and illegal surveillance of judges, opposition politicians, journalists and human rights workers.
Colombia’s Commission of Investigation and Prosecution of the House of Representatives has initiated a process to establish if former President Alvaro Uribe bore responsibility for the illegal acts..
A group of Colombian politicians protested outside the Panamanian Embassy in Bogota claiming that the Panamanian government was “a sponsor of state crimes."

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MIRE) confirmed via a press release that asylum had been granted after carefully analyzing the request and circumstances in which there was reasonable fear for personal safety. Asylum was granted: "with the aim of contributing to social and political stability in the region, in strict compliance with the rules and the doctrine of territorial asylum recognized by international law and historically observed by the Republic of Panama,".