Conviction Confirmed for Former First Lady of El Salvador

SAN SALVADOR (AP) _ A court in San Salvador confirmed on Thursday the sentence of 10 years in prison for former first lady Ana Ligia de Saca for the crime of money laundering and ratified that she must pay the State 17.6 million dollars in terms of civil liability.

Together with Mrs. de Saca, the court imposed 10 years in prison on her brother Oscar Edgardo Sol Mixco, while Milton Romeo Avilés, linked to the Saca family’s companies, was sentenced to seven years in prison for the same crime, reported the Office of Communications of the Courts of Justice.

The case is linked to acts of corruption during the government of Tony Saca (2004-2009), who was tried and convicted of diverting more than 300 million dollars from public coffers to favor his companies and third parties.

During the trial, the former first lady had approaches with the Public Ministry to submit to an abbreviated process in exchange for receiving a lesser prison sentence, but in the end an agreement was not reached on the amount of money that was demanded of her.

The former first lady had confessed her responsibility in the laundering of 25 million dollars of public funds, but she retracted after the Public Ministry demanded that she return the indicated amount to the State.

Upon receiving the sentence in writing, Mrs. Saca’s lawyers confirmed that they will go before the First Criminal Chamber of San Salvador to appeal the judges’ decision.

Mrs. de Saca -.who was processed in freedom- was sent to a women’s prison in this capital, but due to her delicate state of health, she was admitted to a hospital in January, where she is still receiving medical care.

The corruption network that he was part of laundered the 25 million dollars by triangulating funds that left the State to individuals who transferred them to various advertising agencies that in turn sent them to communication companies belonging to the family of former President Saca.

The 57-year-old former president is serving a 10-year sentence in La Esperanza prison, on the outskirts of San Salvador. In September 2018 he requested an abbreviated trial and after confessing his crimes, a court sentenced him for embezzlement and laundering. Five of his old collaborators pleaded guilty in the same trial to obtain a lesser sentence.

Saca was arrested in September 2016 and became the second Salvadoran president to be prosecuted for illicit enrichment or diversion of public resources during his term. The first was Francisco Flores (1999-2004), who died of a stroke while in the family. Both came to power nominated by the right-wing Alianza Republicana Nacionalista.

Former presidents Mauricio Funes (2009-2014) and Salvador Sánchez Cerén (2014-2019), of the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, are refugees in Nicaragua and have several pending processes in El Salvador.

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