The Federal Police are working to indict journalist Amaury Ribeiro Júnior for his alleged role in violating the financial privacy of individuals linked to opposition presidential candidate José Serra, O Estado de S. Paulo and O Globo report.
Former President Álvaro Uribe has assumed “legal and political responsibility” for actions taken by his former chief of staff, Bernardo Moreno, one of nine former senior officials sanctioned for the espionage scandal involving wiretaps and illegal surveillance of judges, opponents, and journalists, Colombia Reports, Associated Press, and El Espectador report.
Thieves made off with computers and several USB drives from the house of Ignacio Gómez, a TV news host and the president of the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP). For the journalist, one of the targets of illegal spying by the Administrative Department of Security (Colombia’s intelligence agency – DAS), this is the fifth robbery in seven years.
Colombia’s Minster of Interior and Justice, Germán Vargas Lleras, has proposed declasifying secret intelligence agency reports on illegal espionage against politicians, judges, journalists, and human rights activists, EFE reports.
Mary Cuddehe, a U.S. journalist, was offered $20,000 to spy on plaintiffs in one of the biggest environmental lawsuits in Ecuador's history, Cuddehe revealed in a first-person account published in the Atlantic.
In statements to prosecutors, an ex intelligence agency offical said that President Álvaro Uribe and several of his confidants knew about the Administrative Department of Security's (DAS) wiretaps and spying on journalists, judges, opposition leaders, and human rights activists. The incriminating testimony by the former director of DAS is the first that has directly connected the president to the spy scandal, El Nuevo Herald and La Silla Vacia report.
“Betrayed” is the work used in an editorial by the largest Spanish-language newspaper in New York, El Diario-La Prensa, to describe sentiment in the newsroom after one of its journalist pleaded guilty to being part of a Russian spy ring.
Vicky Peláez and her husband already are in Russia after being deported along with eight others who admitted they were undercover Russian agents, reported RPP.
Vicky Peláez will be placed under house arrest and be forced to wear an electronic monitor, while the other nine suspects arrested for spying for Russia remain in custody, reported Reuters. Bail for the Peruvian journalist was set at $250,000, and she could be released as soon as next week, added El Comercio.
Vicky Peláez, a Peruvian journalist based in New York, is among 10 people the United States has arrested and accused of being secret agents for Russia, reported the Associated Press. The network of informants supposedly was dedicated to recruiting political sources and compiling secret information to send to Moscow, added El País.