A Colombian senator wanted on charges he bribed the Supreme Court has surrendered to justice weeks after the high court ordered his arrest.
Senator Musa Besaile (U Party), an ally of President Juan Manuel Santos, surrendered to authorities at the Police department in the northern province of Cordoba where the politician is from.
Besaile has been accused of bribing former Supreme Court justice Francisco Ricaurte and the recently resigned Supreme Justice Gustavo Malo to obstruct a criminal investigation.
The senator’s alleged links to paramilitary death squads has been investigated by the court for years. He has admitted, however, that this investigation was put on hold after paying large sums of money.
Senator admits paying Supreme Court to obstruct probe into paramilitary ties
Authorities had been looking for the fugitive former senator for more than two weeks.
According to newspaper El Espectador, Besaile would be moved to the capital Bogota to be indicted for bribery and fraud.
The senator has claimed he was extorted by Colombia’s jailed anti-corruption czar, Gustavo Moreno, to avoid arrest. Moreno, however, said the payment of $600 thousand was a bribe.
Moreno was arrested after the DEA revealed audio recordings in which the former anti-corruption czar was heard asking bribes to a former governor in Miami.
The arrest spurred a wave of arrests and a scandal unseen in the Supreme Court since its inception.
One sitting and multiple former Supreme Court justices have been accused of corruption. The former chief justice of the court has been arrested and media have been speculating about the arrest of two more judicial heavyweights.
