MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th July, 2022) The Colombian Attorney General's Office was unable to find evidence of vote-buying in the 2018 presidential election, won by incumbent President Ivan Duque, a lawyer for the defendant in the case, Ivan Cancino, said.
"As lawyers for Maria Claudia Daza, we have always maintained that no crime was committed in the so-called 'nene politica' case. The Colombian prosecutor's office admitted that the truth was on our side and filed this investigation, arguing that no criminal law had been violated," Cancino said on Twitter on Monday.
Prosecutors were investigating a possible vote-buying scheme for future President Duque using funds of the alleged drug trafficker. In an intercepted telephone conversation, Maria Daza, who worked in the team of former President Alvaro Uribe, spoke to Jose Hernandez, nicknamed Nene, about the need to secretly obtain additional funds from him for Duque's victory in the department of Guajira in northeast Colombia.
According to the prosecutor's document on the closure of the investigation, which was published by the media, it is impossible to conclude from the contents of the call that there was a vote-buying operation.
