Odebrecht case, former director of the ANI, Luis Fernando Andrade, was charged

While the FBI is offering a $5 million reward for information about Odebrecht's bribes, the 36th criminal judge of knowledge in Colombia, decreed the legal nullity of the proceedings being pursued against the former president of the National Infrastructure Agency (ANI), Luis Fernando Andrade, for the called Ruta del Sol III.

At the hearing, it was decided to annul all proceedings by the Attorney General's Office and to send the file back to the guarantee judge who previously charged Luis Fernando, in the scandal of the alleged bribes handed over by the Odebrecht firm to politicians and state officials for infrastructure works in the country.

According to penalist Jesús Albeiro Yepes, in dialogues with the newspaper El Tiempo, he said that, “after four hearings before Thursday of guarantees and knowledge, the Prosecutor's Office has not been able to specify the facts that motivate the alleged crimes charged. These judicial decisions bear in mind that there is no probable cause.”

According to the judge's argument, the prosecution's accusation against the former president of the National Infrastructure Agency was not clear in the description of the facts and did not have understandable language.

The judicial management had charged Luis Fernando Andrade with charges of improper conclusion of contracts and embezzlement. Apparently it would have had an irregular incidence to authorize the otrosi of the Ocaña-Gamarra road.

For the criminal prosecutor, it is clear that the Prosecutor's Office should not insist on pursuing his client, whom he describes as an “exemplary citizen who led the fight against corruption in the infrastructure sector, the recovery of billions of pesos for the Colombian State,” he said.

On the other hand, Andrade is also at the trial stage for the Ruta del Sol II contract, for which there are several convicted persons.

The evidentiary incident was even brought to the Bogotá Court and, apparently, the trial will resume next May.

At the moment, Luis Fernando Andrade is still in the United States, without any requirement and attending the hearings.

The Attorney General's Office, faced with the evidence presented and the voluntary acceptance of charges, a Criminal Judge of the Bogotá Circuit sentenced businessman Andrés Salazar Ferro to four years in prison and declared him responsible for the crime of illicit enrichment of private individuals.

According to the investigation, he reports that the one sentenced, as a representative of the World Group of Engineers S.A.S., was part of the Ruta del Sol II Consortium, received and handed Federico Gaviria Velázquez a significant sum of money for intervening in the award of the Ocaña highway project (Norte de Santander) - Gamarra (Cesar).

In this way, it was demonstrated that Salazar Ferro obtained a capital increase in favor of third parties.

The man must serve his sentence in a prison center. The decision is of the first instance and legal remedies are taken against it.

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