Costa Rica's top court seeks to strip president of immunity in corruption case
President Rodrigo Chaves was accused by the attorney general of forcing a communications services company hired by the presidency to give $32,000 to his friend and former image advisor Federico Cruz.
The top court's unprecedented request comes against the backdrop of a clash between the judiciary and Chaves, a conservative economist and former World Bank official.
Attorney General Carlo Diaz accuses the 64-year-old president of bribery, a crime punishable by up to eight years in prison for public officials.
The court also asked for Culture Minister Jorge Rodriguez to be stripped of his immunity for the same reason.
According to the accusation, the communications company was contracted for Chaves's 2022-2026 term with funds from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration under an allegedly improper procedure.
The president has not reacted so far, but ruling party leader Pilar Cisneros called the tribunal's request "ridiculous," saying Chaves had nothing to do with the communications contract.
Meanwhile, Rodriguez said he has "a clear conscience and a clean record."
Political belligerence
Chaves accuses the public prosecutor's office, the Supreme Court and Congress of blocking his policy initiatives.
The feud has sparked a standoff between the branches of government in a country long seen as a beacon of democracy and stability in a crime -ridden region.
Chaves defeated centrist former president Jose Maria Figueres in 2022 and began a four-year mandate focused on reinvigorating the flagging economy.
He is not allowed to seek a second consecutive term, but politicians close to him have not ruled out his running for a seat in Congress in 2026.
Chaves's profile as a hardline populist leader favors him in the polls.
He has voiced hope that his party will win a supermajority in Congress in next February's presidential and legislative elections that will enable it to implement a series of reforms.
Chaves routinely criticises opposition parties, judges, prosecutors, legislators, and critical media.
He is an admirer of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and months ago sent his justice minister to visit the gang-busting leader's mega-prison, whose harsh conditions have alarmed rights campaigners.
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France 24
21 hours ago
- France 24
Costa Rica's top court seeks to strip president of immunity in corruption case
Costa Rica' s Supreme Court on Tuesday asked Congress, for the first time ever, to strip the country's president of his immunity from prosecution to be tried on corruption charges. President Rodrigo Chaves was accused by the attorney general of forcing a communications services company hired by the presidency to give $32,000 to his friend and former image advisor Federico Cruz. The top court's unprecedented request comes against the backdrop of a clash between the judiciary and Chaves, a conservative economist and former World Bank official. Attorney General Carlo Diaz accuses the 64-year-old president of bribery, a crime punishable by up to eight years in prison for public officials. The court also asked for Culture Minister Jorge Rodriguez to be stripped of his immunity for the same reason. According to the accusation, the communications company was contracted for Chaves's 2022-2026 term with funds from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration under an allegedly improper procedure. The president has not reacted so far, but ruling party leader Pilar Cisneros called the tribunal's request "ridiculous," saying Chaves had nothing to do with the communications contract. Meanwhile, Rodriguez said he has "a clear conscience and a clean record." Political belligerence Chaves accuses the public prosecutor's office, the Supreme Court and Congress of blocking his policy initiatives. The feud has sparked a standoff between the branches of government in a country long seen as a beacon of democracy and stability in a crime -ridden region. Chaves defeated centrist former president Jose Maria Figueres in 2022 and began a four-year mandate focused on reinvigorating the flagging economy. He is not allowed to seek a second consecutive term, but politicians close to him have not ruled out his running for a seat in Congress in 2026. Chaves's profile as a hardline populist leader favors him in the polls. He has voiced hope that his party will win a supermajority in Congress in next February's presidential and legislative elections that will enable it to implement a series of reforms. Chaves routinely criticises opposition parties, judges, prosecutors, legislators, and critical media. He is an admirer of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and months ago sent his justice minister to visit the gang-busting leader's mega-prison, whose harsh conditions have alarmed rights campaigners.
France 24
a day ago
- France 24
Polish supreme court ratifies nationalist's presidential vote win
In the country's highly polarised political landscape, concerns had also been voiced over the legitimacy of the court chamber which will issue the verdict. Karol Nawrocki, backed by the Law and Justice (PiS) party, scored 51 percent of votes to win the June 1 runoff election, according to official results -- a major blow for the pro-EU government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk and LGBTQ rights campaigners. Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, the candidate put forward by the government, lost out by 369,000 votes in the country of 38 million people. "All of the circumstances clearly demonstrate that Karol Tadeusz Nawrocki garnered more votes than Rafał Kazimierz Trzaskowski during the second round of the vote," judge Krzysztof Wiak announced after a hearing, also confirming the election result. Prosecutors had alleged that the vote count was falsified in Nawrocki's favour at some polling stations, fuelling calls for a national recount. PiS dismissed doubts about the vote as an attempt to "steal the election". According to the Polish constitution, the Supreme Court had to validate the ballot before the winner could be sworn in at a joint session of parliament -- a ceremony planned for August 6. However, European courts and legal experts have questioned the legitimacy of the Exceptional Supervision and Public Matters Chamber, the Supreme Court body that issued the ruling on Tuesday. The European Court of Human Rights said in 2023 that the Chamber does not fulfil the definition of "an independent and impartial tribunal established by law". Justice Minister Adam Bodnar, who is also the prosecutor general, had asked in vain for all of the chamber's judges to be excluded. Tusk has criticised the chamber, but recognised on Monday that "it is the Supreme Court's responsibility to rule whether an election is valid or not". "It is not possible... for the Supreme Court to be replaced in this matter... by the prosecutor general or the government," the prime minister said. 'Paralyse the Supreme Court' The Supreme Court had received around 56,000 election protests since the second round of voting. Judges have already dismissed, without taking further action, more than 50,000 complaints, many of which were based on protest templates shared on social media. Supreme Court chief justice Malgorzata Manowska criticised the sending of template-based protests as an "operation meant to... paralyse the Supreme Court". Bodnar complained that prosecutors were not given access to all of the 56,000 protests and suggested that the chamber's examination of those could be nothing more than a "facade". Still, the court ordered the results from 13 polling stations to be recounted earlier this month. National prosecutors later said that in some of those polling stations votes were transferred from one candidate to another, mainly in Nawrocki's favour. Government coalition lawmaker Roman Giertych authored one of the protest templates, claiming that votes had been reassigned to Nawrocki and alleging ballot rigging. Giertych and several experts have demanded a national recount and called for the presidential inauguration to be postponed in order to clarify the alleged irregularities. These experts assert that the previous nationalist government and outgoing president Andrzej Duda introduced reforms which have undermined the rule of law in Poland. The reforms have long put Poland at odds with the European Commission, but the victory of a pro-EU coalition in October 2023 parliamentary elections mitigated the conflict. Parliament speaker Szymon Holownia, like other members of the ruling coalition, has so far firmly rejected the idea of postponing the presidential oath ceremony. Independently, Bodnar has ordered a group of prosecutors to examine "irregularities" in the vote counting. © 2025 AFP
Euronews
a day ago
- Euronews
US Senate passes Trump's tax bill after turbulent all-night session
Senate Republicans hauled US President Donald Trump's tax breaks and spending cuts bill to passage on Tuesday by the narrowest of margins, pushing past opposition from Democrats and their own ranks after a turbulent overnight session. The sudden outcome capped an unusually tense weekend of work at the Capitol, the president's signature legislative priority teetering on the edge of approval or collapse. In the end that tally was 50-50, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. Three Republican senators - Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky - joined all Democrats in voting against it. The difficulty it took for Republicans, who have the majority hold in Congress, to wrestle the bill to this point is not expected to let up. The package now goes back to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson had warned senators not to overhaul what his chamber had already approved. But the Senate did make changes, particularly to Medicaid, risking more problems ahead. House GOP leaders said they would put it on Trump's desk by his 4 July deadline. It's a pivotal moment for the president and his party, as they have been consumed by the 940-page One Big Beautiful Bill Act, as it's formally called, and invested their political capital in delivering on the GOP's sweep of power in Washington. Trump acknowledged it's "very complicated stuff," as he left the White House for Florida. "I don't want to go too crazy with cuts," he said. "I don't like cuts." What started as a routine but laborious day of amendment voting, in a process called vote-a-rama, spiralled into a round-the-clock slog as Republican leaders were buying time to shore up support. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota worked around the clock desperately reaching for last-minute agreements between those in his party worried the bill's reductions to Medicaid would leave millions more people without healthcare and his most conservative flank, which wants even steeper cuts to hold down deficits ballooning with the tax cuts. "In the end we got the job done," Thune said afterward. An analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034 if the bill became law. The CBO said the package would increase the deficit by nearly $3.3 trillion (€2.8 trillion) over the decade. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said 'Republicans are in shambles because they know the bill is so unpopular." What's in the bill? The bill includes $4.5 trillion (€3.8 trillion) in tax cuts, according to the latest CBO analysis, making permanent Trump's 2017 rates, which would expire at the end of the year if Congress failed to act, while adding the new ones he campaigned on, including no taxes on tips. The Senate package would roll back billions of dollars in green energy tax credits, which Democrats warn will wipe out wind and solar investments nationwide. It would impose $1.2 trillion (€1 trillion) in cuts, largely to Medicaid and food stamps, by imposing work requirements on able-bodied people, including some parents and older Americans, making sign-up eligibility more stringent and changing federal reimbursements to states. Additionally, the bill would provide a $350 billion (€297 billion) boost for border and national security, including for deportations, some of it paid for with new fees charged to immigrants.
