Colombia’s Inspector General asked the Canadian embassy in Bogotá to
grant asylum to the former DAS official who had testified that high
officials from the Presidency ordered the illegal wiretapping of
government opponents, newspaper El Espectador reported Monday.
Former counter-intelligence chief Jorge Alberto Lagos asked the Inspector General to take action bcause Lagos fears for his safety and that of his family after he had testified before the Prosecutor General’s Office that the closest aides of President Alvaro Uribe were involved in the DAS wiretap scandal.
The Inspector General wrote a letter to the Canadian embassy to study the possibility of granting asylum to the former government official and his family.
The DAS is currently being investigated by both the Prosecutor General and the Inspector General for the illegal wiretapping of Supreme Court magistrates, journalists and opposition politicians. According to Lagos, Uribe’s former personal advisor Jose Obdulio Gaviria and teh President’s legal and press secretaries were informed about the results of the wiretaps.
The Presidency denies any involvement.
