El Salvador’s Attorney General’s office has ordered the arrest of former President Salvador Sanchez Ceren and nine top officials from a past administration over money laundering and corruption allegations.
Gatekeepers News reports that the office on Thursday said five former high-ranking members of former President Mauricio Funes’s government (from 2009 to 2014) have been detained, while Sanchez Ceren is out of the country.
The wanted officials, according to the Attorney General’s office, include former heads of the health, finance, labour, agriculture and environment ministries.
Sanchez Ceren was a vice president at the time of the alleged crimes, which involved money laundering, embezzlement and illicit enrichment after they were transferred unauthorised funds. Gatekeepers News reports that he became president the next term.
“They were favoured with the payment of bonuses,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement.
El Salvador’s Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado, at a news conference, disclosed that he would seek international help to find Sanchez Ceren.
“We’ve issued arrest orders and later we will request a red alert for Interpol to activate its search mechanisms against Salvador Sanchez Ceren,” he said.
