A 26-year-old man, suffering from a neurological disorder, was arrested Thursday morning as a suspect of threatening to kill the United States ambassador in Costa Rica.
The man, with surnames Soto Cordero, was arrested by agents of the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) in San Juan de La Union, Cartago, after having raided two houses within the same property.
During the raid, another man, a 34-year-old computer scientist, named Ortiz Sanabria, who lives in the same place, was also arrested.
Heiner Cortés Carrera, of the Departamento de Investigaciones Criminales of the OIJ, said that Soto is a nephew of Ortiz and lives in a house that was built in the back of the main house.
The OIJ official explained that the threats were made through a single email that, apparently, Soto sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on September 7 of this year. US authorities communicated with the OIJ for the investigation of the case.
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The FBI determined that the IP address is from Costa Rica, so it communicates with the OIJ, the IP is in the name of a man named Ortiz, owner of the house. Behind, the main house there is a recent addition, in which a relative with a special condition lives,” explained Cortés.
In the raid, OIJ officials confiscated all electronic equipment that was on the property, including a computer and cell phones.
Though no medication was found on the premises, investigators learned Soto is autistic, but it will be up to the forensic examiners to make the final determination.
“We assume that maybe it is this person (Soto) who sent the email with the threat, a death threat to the ambassador and his entire family, the email always referring to the ambassador being male. As the young man has this condition, we will take him for a psychiatric assessment before starting the (criminal) process,” said Cortés.
According to article 195 of the Penal Code “a fine of 15 to 50 days or a fine of ten to 60 days will be imposed on anyone who uses unfair and serious threats to alarm or threaten a person, if the act were committed with weapons of fire, or by two or more people, or if the threats were anonymous or symbolic. ”
Sharon Day was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica on September 25, 2017.
