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Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s Office on Monday announced that it had called executives of airliner Avianca for questioning over the illegal spying on its pilots’s labor union during a strike.
A day after the prosecution announced that its own personnel had been wiretapping pilots union ACDAC during a 2017 strike, chief prosecutor Humberto Martinez announced Avianca directors would be questioned.
Colombia’s prosecution wiretapped for anyone who paid, arrests indicate
None of the arrested suspects in the wiretapping scandal have wanted to say who ordered the illegal spying on the pilots, but according to Martinez “the country needs to know what the degree of corporate responsibility is.”
Prosecutor General Nestor Humberto Martinez
The spying on the Avianca pilots came to light in August last year when the prosecution dismantled a clandestine spy network run by former security officials, allegedly including the former chief of police of the capital Bogota.
Later it became evident that the suspects used the Prosecutor General’s Office’s wiretapping facilities for corporate spying and the spying on politicians and other state officials.
One of the suspects, former state intelligence chief Laude Jose Fernandez, allegedly spied on the pilots in 2017 while they were on strike over a labor dispute with Avianca boss German Efromovich.
Former intelligence chief wiretapped Avianca pilots during strike: prosecution
In November, prosecutors already accused Avianca of having “a direct interest” in “information related to those activities” carried out by the pilots’ labor union during the labor dispute, but no action was taken until Monday.
Martinez did not specify which Avianca executives would be called for questioning.