San Jose, Aug 1 (EFE) Costa Rican prosecutors have sought a 24-year jail term for former president Rafael Angel Calderon who is facing a corruption charge, officials said.
The case involves commissions worth $8 million from a $39.5 million loan the country’s C.C.S.S. health services agency obtained in 2002 from the Finland government for purchase of medical equipments from a Finnish company. The Costa Rican Congress approved the loan in 2001.
Calderon and seven others are implicated in the case.
Calderon, who was in power from 1990 to 1994, and has been campaigning to return to the presidency, said Friday the trial, which began last November, was politically motivated.
He is the first ex-president to be put on trial in the country.
Prosecutors say the ex-president received $520,000 in commission and the money was deposited in a Panama bank account.
Calderon says he received the money for a “political consultancy” and the payment was therefore legitimate.
Ex-president of the C.C.S.S., Eliseo Vargas, brought the case against him.
Vargas, who was a friend of Calderon, belongs to the same Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC), which is now in the opposition.
Prosecutors said Calderon and the other co-accused hatched the plan to cheat the government.
