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The Attorney General's Office in Colombia has asked the Supreme Court to investigate Senator Musa Besaile's involvement in alleged corruption tied to two other high-ranking officials, according to judicial sources.
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An ex-governor of Cordoba, Alejandro Lyons – who is currently in the United States – accused Besaile of being involved in bribing high court officials before his trial.
"A part of the payments made to benefit Senator Musa Abraham Besaile Fayad in his trial before the Court was provided by money collected for corruption in the department of Cordoba," Lyons said in a statement for the Prosecutor's Office.
Besaile is being investigated for allegedly paying $684,469 dollars to an anti-corruption detainee, Gustavo Moreno, to stop an arrest warrant being issued against him for alleged links to paramilitaries.
The ex-governor of Cordoba, in his testimony last month, said he was asked to testify in the corruption case in exchange for benefits.
Lyons pledged to denounce anyone who participated in the irregularities for which he is being prosecuted and will testify in cases against him, including the Supreme Court.
He is also implicated in at least 20 crimes against the public administration, including a case involving millions of dollars in payments made to non-existing medical centers for hemophiliac patients.
Lyons' cooperation helped uncover the supposed network of corruption that involves two ex-presidents of the Supreme Court of Colombia, Jose Leonidas Bustos and Francisco Javier Ricaurte Gómez, who may face bribery charges.
The Supreme Court has already forwarded the documentation to the Commission of Accusations of the House of Representatives to carry out the "preliminary inquiry."
The corruption scandal also involves Senators Hernan Andrade of the Conservative Party and Besaile of the ruling U Partido, as well as ex-Congressman Luis Alfredo Ramos, who is being investigated by the Supreme Court of Justice.
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