MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Legendary Chilean legislator charged with bribery

Chilean lawmaker Juan Pablo Letelier, an emblematic figure in the Socialist party here, on Monday was charged with bribery by a special judge investigating corruption.

The son of Orlando Letelier, Chile's foreign minister under President Salvador Allende, who was assassinated in Washington in 1976 on the orders of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship, was arrested last Thursday

. He is being held in the Capuchinos jail, a facility that houses "economic criminals." The order was issued by Judge Carlos Aranguiz after he heard the testimony of the legislator. The judge is investing the financing of Letelier's election campaign with money from a driving school accused of irregularities with which Letelier might have been involved in influence peddling.

According to the judge's investigation, Letelier, who was stripped of legislative immunity in January 2001, in another case that did not come to trial, supposedly received $25,000 for his campaign in exchange for covering up irregularities committed by the school.

Interior Minister Jose Miguel Insulza, a Socialist, also noted that "he was not surprised" by the arrest of Letelier, who is supported by the Socialist Party.

The president of the Socialist Party, Camilo Escalona, said, "We believe there is a lack of evidence in this case, which makes us think that a great injustice is being committed against Juan Pablo Letelier." And the Socialist Party said that Letelier's arrest was "arbitrary and illegal," and expressed confidence that he would be able to prove his innocence.

Letelier has said he is the target of a campaign to remove him from politics using false witnesses and other tricks.

Judge Aranguiz also charged four other representatives with bribery, two of them militant Christian Democrats, one from the Party for Democracy and the other a militant from the Radical Party.

He also charged two owners of the 21st Century Driving School, from whom Letelier allegedly received the $25,000, with bribery.