A former president of El Salvador who is detained pending trial for alleged embezzlement was transferred to an ordinary jail Tuesday.
Police said Antonio Saca was sent to the Mariona prison, an overcrowded facility on San Salvador's northern outskirts that holds 5,000 inmates -- four times the number it was designed to incarcerate.
He was transferred with six other people suspected with him of pocketing $246 million in public funds during his 2004-2009 mandate, the national police service said on its Twitter account.
They had been held in cells in the police's counternarcotics division, but a court ordered their move in line with a request from state prosecutors.
Saca was arrested in October with his former private secretary and former communications secretary, among others.
They are charged with embezzlement, criminal association and money laundering.
A former president of El Salvador who is detained pending trial for alleged embezzlement was transferred to an ordinary jail Tuesday.
Police said Antonio Saca was sent to the Mariona prison, an overcrowded facility on San Salvador’s northern outskirts that holds 5,000 inmates — four times the number it was designed to incarcerate.
He was transferred with six other people suspected with him of pocketing $246 million in public funds during his 2004-2009 mandate, the national police service said on its Twitter account.
They had been held in cells in the police’s counternarcotics division, but a court ordered their move in line with a request from state prosecutors.
Saca was arrested in October with his former private secretary and former communications secretary, among others.
They are charged with embezzlement, criminal association and money laundering.
