Colombia’s prosecutor general called President Alvaro Uribe’s personal secretary Bernardo Moreno and former DAS director Maria del Pilar Hurtado to the stand, to answer questions relating to the illegal wiretapping of prominent Colombian citizens by the government security agency.
According to Caracol Radio, the decision to question Moreno and Hurtado was based on documents and testimony provided by other former DAS officials, who implicated the two in the scandal in which judges, political opponents, journalists and trade unionists were found to have been illegally kept under surveillance.
A former DAS official told magazine Semana last week that the results of illegal wiretaps were periodically reported to Moreno and Uribe’s judicial advisor Edmundo Del Castillo.
In February Moreno was charged with “exceeding the limit of his powers,” for allegedly receiving confidential information during a meeting in his office with DAS officials on April 24, 2008.
Hurtado is suspected of involvement in the illegal activities, but no charges have been brought against her.