Colombia's intelligence service DAS continued to illegally record phone conversations of judges, politicians and journalists, even after its former director was sacked exactly because of this. According to Semana, the DAS again is infiltrated by the mafia.
According to an article published in Semana, the DAS continuously recorded journalists,politicians and judges and was doing so for drug traffickers, paramilitaries and guerrillas.
Last year, the former director of the DAS resigned after it became known that her service had been illegally shadowing opposition senator Gustavo Petro of Polo Democrático.
According to this week's publication, judges of the Supreme Court, the directors of Caracol Radio, W Radio, Noticias UNO and weekly Semana were bugged, as well as a respected columnist from newspaper El Espectador. The investigated media all operate relatively independently and at times arevery critical of the government.
The judges allegedly were tapped when the Supreme Court was clashing with the Presidency over the bribery investigation of (former) ministers and the investigation of mostly coalition congressmen with ties to paramilitary groups.
The DAS denies the allegations made by Semana and asked the formation of an elite investigation group to prove its innocence.
However, according to sources consulted by Semana, there had been increased activity at the DAS main office to destroy material over the past few days, possibly to get rid of evidence of illegal wiretapping.
