The Citizen (Gauteng)

UN anti-graft body ‘a threat’

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United Nations – Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales slammed a UN anti-corruption body yesterday, telling the United Nations General Assembly the agency that has attempted to prosecute him was a “threat to peace” in the Central American nation.

Morales decided last month to not renew the mandate of the UN-backed Internatio­nal Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) and banned the body’s head from setting foot in the country, on the grounds they violated laws and sowed “judicial terror” with “selective justice”.

Morales was scheduled to meet with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday, Guatemala’s government said in a brief statement without providing further details.

The comedian-turned-politician dedicated more than half his speech at the UN to condemning the CICIG, accusing it of abuses of power, violations of human rights and politicisi­ng justice in Guatemala.

He also attempted to blame deaths on the CICIG, saying it had caused fatalities by pressuring judges to deny five unidentifi­ed suspects in custody proper medical treatment.

“The CICIG has created a system of terror, a system wherein those who think differentl­y are persecuted,” he said.

The ideals of the CICIG had been lost in UN bureaucrac­y and the “cult of personalit­y, which should never be greater than the institutio­n it represents,” Morales said.

CICIG head Ivan Velasquez Last year, it also sought to prosecute Morales over illegal campaign financing allegation­s. –

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