A court in El Salvador sentenced Benito Lara on Wednesday for illicit enrichment in his stage as a national deputy between 2009 and 2014 and as Minister of Justice and Security in the government of former President Salvador Sánchez Cerén.
The sentence includes Lara’s wife, Ana Emilia Zelaya, and her daughter Ileana Briseida Lara Campos.
“It was determined that Mr. Benito Lara will have to return to the State of El Salvador the amount of 39,253.23 dollars. Mrs. Ana Emilia de Lara the amount of 2,000 dollars and her daughter Ana Briseida Lara must return a total of 68,302.64 dollars, making a total of 109,555.87 ”, explained one of the prosecutors in the case to journalists.
Both Lara and her relatives were disqualified from holding public office for a period of 10 years.
Lara, a senior leader of the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) that ruled the country from 2009 to 1919, also faces criminal proceedings for crimes of electoral fraud, illegal groups and negotiating with gangs.
After learning of the ruling, the former minister’s defense attorney, Marvin Flores, stated that the criteria of the Civil Chamber was to sanction even though there were expert reports that established that there was no illicit enrichment.
“The expertise (of the Prosecutor’s Office and the defense) coincided in relation to the fact that it could not be established that there was illicit enrichment, or an unjustified increase in assets,” said the defense attorney.
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