Update, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 10:23 a.m.:
Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) Director Francisco Segura told Costa Rica’s Supreme Court that a supposed threat to Keylor Navas’ family motivated his decision to approve a police database search of the soccer star and his family, according to the daily La Nación. Segura said that his authorization only extended to two officials. The OIJ chief did not give additional details about the reported threat during his testimony on Monday, the newspaper reported.
Chief Prosecutor Jorge Chavarría criticized Segura’s handling of the threat, saying that police should have been searching for the criminal, not searching for information on Navas’ sisters. Still no word as to why 26 other OIJ officials and prosecutors were looking into the Navas family.
Original post continues here:
The investigation into alleged spying by law enforcement officials on Real Madrid goalie and Costa Rican World Cup darling Keylor Navas is heading all the way to the top of the Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ). On Monday morning, the Prosecutor’s Office announced it is expanding the number of prosecutors and police under investigation to include OIJ Director Francisco Segura. Segura’s name brings the total number of law enforcement officers under investigation to 29, along with 24 OIJ officials and four prosecutors.
The Prosecutor’s Office said they would investigate Segura after the OIJ director mentioned off the cuff in a press conference last week that he has approved at least two of the queries into Navas and his family. Costa Rican Supreme Court justices ordered the Prosecutor’s Office to look into why the OIJ agents and prosecutors searched a police database a total of 51 times for personal information on Navas and two of his sisters, Keilyn and Kimberly, earlier this year.
OIJ officials later confirmed that Navas was not under investigation for any crime.
“We have decided to open a case for the crime of abuse of authority,” Chief Prosecutor Jorge Chavarría said on Oct. 30. “There likely were other crimes committed, but we don’t yet have enough information. We need to let the investigation proceed,” he told reporters.
If found guilty of abuse of authority, the officials could face up to three years in prison for arbitrarily using their authority allegedly to violate someone’s human rights, according to Article 338 of the Costa Rican Penal Code.
Navas said that he is “outraged” by the events and asked his lawyers to take legal action against the alleged snoops. Spain’s Best Goalkeeper said he would fight this case to be sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else, according to his lawyers, who spoke during a press conference on Oct. 30.
Read more stories about Costa Rican goalie Keylor Navas here.
AFP contributed to this report.
