A court in Guatemala has sentenced the former vice-president, Roxana Baldetti, to 15 years and six months in jail for her role in what became known as the “Magic Water” scandal.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said that she embezzled millions from a state fund set up to decontaminate a lake.\u00a0The chemical formula used as part of the clean-up was an ineffective solution of water, salt and chlorine.\u00a0\u00a0The deal was negotiated by her brother, Mario, who held no official post.\u00a0\u00a0He was sentenced to 13 years in jail.\u00a0\u00a0In his verdict, Judge Pablo Xitumul said that Ms Baldetti was the mastermind of a scheme devised to defraud the Guatemalan state.\u00a0She agreed to pay almost $18m (\u00a313.7m) to an Israeli company to clean up the Amatitl\u00e1n Lake.\u00a0\u00a0However, the chemicals being used in the decontaminations scheme turned out to be mostly water and salt – leading the scandal to be dubbed “Magic Water”.<\/p>\n
Guatemalan media have hailed the verdict as historic, in a region where the rich and the powerful have traditionally enjoyed impunity.\u00a0\u00a0Several Guatemalan officials and the Israeli businessman, Uri Roitman, were also sentenced to jail.\u00a0\u00a0Ms Baldetti left office in disgrace in 2015, after the biggest anti-corruption protests the country had ever seen.\u00a0\u00a0She is currently awaiting trial in a customs fraud scandal dubbed La L\u00ednea (The Line), involving the payment of bribes by private companies to Guatemala’s customs service.\u00a0\u00a0Prosecutors have implicated Ms Baldetti and the president at the time, Otto P\u00e9rez Molina, in the corruption scheme.\u00a0\u00a0Mr P\u00e9rez Molina was detained at the end of his term in 2015 and remains in custody, awaiting trial.<\/p>\n
Both of them deny the allegations.<\/p>\n
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Source\u00a0bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"