The Prosecutor's Office of Colombia has filed charges this Monday against the former Chief of Staff of the Presidency and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Laura Camila Sarabia Torres, whom it attributes crimes of abuse of authority, illegal coercion, and misappropriation of use in relation to the alleged submission in 2023 of a domestic worker to a polygraph test to find out the whereabouts of an undisclosed amount of money that would have disappeared from the residence of the then Chief of Staff of President Gustavo Petro.
The Colombian Public Ministry has communicated the decision through its social networks, where it points to Sarabia "as the alleged responsible for the crimes of abuse of public function, aggravated illegal coercion, and misappropriation by use," figures that correspond in the Spanish legal system to abuse of authority, coercion, and misappropriation of temporary use.
"The evidence indicates that she would have intervened in actions related to the irregular practice of a polygraph test on one of her domestic employees, Marelbys Meza Buelvas, to try to find out the whereabouts of money that disappeared from her place of residence," details the Prosecutor's Office in its note.
Specifically, the investigating body emphasizes that "the decision to use officials and official resources to address a matter of a private nature allegedly exceeded the mission competencies of Sarabia Torres and other public servants involved, and constituted a possible abuse of power and position."
The matter came to light in May 2023 and, after a period in which the procedure seemed to have cooled down, the Prosecutor's Office has now resumed it with this formal accusation. In the initial investigations, it was claimed that Sarabia had resorted to members of the security forces to transfer her son's nanny, Marelbys Meza, to a room in an official building, where she would have undergone the polygraph to determine if she was responsible for the alleged theft of 150 million pesos (31,000 euros), although in the complaint filed, the amount indicated was reduced to 6,500 euros.