A Justice and Peace tribunal prosecutor, Elba Beatriz Silva, announced Thursday that she will ask Colombia’s prosecutor general to investigate corruption allegations made against the Colombian ambassador to the Dominican Republic, former army General Mario Montoya Uribe.
Silva said that her decision was based on claims made to the court on Tuesday by paramilitary leader “Don Mario” that Montoya had received $250,000 from the AUC’s Centauros bloc, El Pais reports. These claims were later denied by the former army general.
“We have to look deeper into what the accused [Don Mario] said, but we will have to investigate everybody that was mentioned [in his statement],” said the prosecutor.
Silva did not reveal when she would put forward her request to the prosecutor general, who will after receiving it decide whether to open investigations on Montoya.
This is not the first time General Montoya’s name has been mentioned in the Justice and Peace tribunal, having already been implicated in the San Apartado massacre of 1997 and accused of dealings with demobilized paramilitary leader Libardo Duarte, alias “Ban Ban.”