Q COSTARICA — The cases against the Organismo de Investigación Judicial director, Randal Zúñiga, took an interesting turn on Friday following raids on his home and office.
Federico Campos, the lawyer for Zúñiga, revealed that there is evidence suggesting that the women who accused the OIJ director of alleged rape may have been pressured by officials from the Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres (INAMU) with education scholarships, and other benefits.
Even more interesting is President Rodrigo Chaves publicly calling “basura” (garbage) the accusation by a woman who claimed that the INAMU tried to bribe her with an education scholarship.
“That’s garbage, like what you (the media) always report (…) Whoever says that is lying. I don’t validate it, never,” Chaves told several media outlets.
The president also said of Zúñiga that his “behavior is disgusting.”
The president’s statement was made when he was approached by journalists as he left a restaurant in San José this Friday, where he had been having lunch with legislator Pilar Cisneros. And coincidentally, Douglas Sánchez, director of Canal Opa, the media outlet that has been publishing a series of reports about the alleged rapes committed by the OIJ official, was also at the restaurant.
Opa was owned by Carlos Valenciano, a businessman who is now part of Laura Fernández’s campaign team.
By Friday night, the Fiscalia (Prosecutor’s Office) had opened a criminal case regarding alleged offers made by Inamu and requested video footage from the restaurant where the president had lunch this Friday.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that this Thursday, it received a statement from a woman who claims that two government officials approached her offering her benefits in exchange for signing a complaint of sexual offenses against the director of the OIJ.
According to the complainant, Yerlin Zúñiga Céspedes, executive president of the INAMU, and a lawyer from the same institution gave her the complaint against Zúñiga “already drafted.”
The woman decided to report the incident after allegedly learning that the document she refused to sign appeared in a report by the media outlet Opa, as reported by Cr Hoy.
Earlier in the week, Zúñiga was suspended from his position for 15 days.
For its part, INAMU categorically denied these accusations. “It is false. It is completely false that INAMU is contacting women to offer them various state benefits and subsidies in exchange for filing complaints against Randall Zúñiga, director of the OIJ,” INAMU stated.