MONTEVIDEO, May 31 — Uruguay’s former vice president Raul Sendic will go on trial for embezzlement and abuse of office during his time as head of the state oil group, a judge ruled yesterday.
“We order the referral to court” of Raul Sendic, accused of “abuse of office” and “embezzlement”, said the ruling by Judge Beatriz Larrieu.
It said that when he was president of the state oil group ANCAP, Sendic “carried out arbitrary acts in abuse of his position.”
Prosecutors last March had asked for Sendic to face trial for abuse of office and “misuse of corporate cards” during his years as head of ANCAP.
Sendic, 55, was a rising star in Uruguayan politics until he resigned in September 2017.
But his problems began in February 2016 when he admitted not having obtained a university degree in human genetics as he had claimed.
The son of Raul Sendic, the late founder of the far-left guerrilla group Tupamaros, which was active in Uruguay in the 1960s and 70s, he became vice president in March 2015. — AFP
