Costa Rican authorities have apprehended 400 passengers on suspicion that they presented falsified coronavirus test results when trying to leave the country, according to the Public Security Ministry (MSP).
Navas, 53, has led the Prosecutor's Office as an interim since October 2017, when her predecessor, Jorge Chavarría, was suspended in relation to the unfolding investigation of alleged corruption.
The statement from the Judicial Branch announcing the arrest also indicated that former Banco de Costa Rica manager Mario Barrenechea was arrested at his home in Santa Ana.
Prosecutors say those arrested are part of a criminal network that manipulated board member elections in favor of people who facilitated loans to certain cooperatives.
Costa Rica’s General Prosecutor Jorge Chavarría Guzmán said shoddy work on the failed project caused economic losses for the country of some ₡1.2 billion ($2 million).
On Monday morning, a three-judge panel in Pérez Zeledón acquitted U.S. citizen Ann Patton of charges of murdering her husband, wealthy financier John Bender, in 2010.
Five years and now on her third trial for murder, Patton has never wavered in proclaiming her innocence. She said that this trial would finally be the one to absolve her of any wrongdoing.
The prosecutor will ask the Criminal Court of San José to set a trial date for a 2013 organ trafficking case that allegedly spanned from Tel Aviv to Cartago as Costa Ricans were paid upwards of $20,000 each to sell their kidneys to Israeli buyers.
