The Colombian Supreme Court has charged the country’s ambassador to Nicaragua with drug trafficking, six years after his arrest at Medellin airport, where cocaine was discovered in his luggage.
Authorities had found 346 grammes of drugs in Leon Fredy Munoz’s bags, prosecutor Marlenne Orjuela Rodriguez said during Tuesday’s court hearing.
Munoz claimed at the hearing that he was not aware of the drugs, insisting they were planted by political rivals. He said he “didn’t even know cocaine.”
The prosecutor has requested a prison term of 9 to 11 years. The Supreme Court, which took on the case since it involved a “high-ranking official,” will issue its ruling at a later hearing.
The Colombian diplomat had been arrested on 31 May 2018, but was freed several days later. From 2018 to 2022, he served in the lower house of Congress, before being appointed ambassador to Managua following Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s election in August 2022.
His indictment comes at a time of strained relations between Colombia and Nicaragua.
On Monday, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega labelled his Colombian and Brazilian counterparts as being in the thrall of the United States and European Union nations for refusing to recognise the disputed presidential election results in Venezuela.
