Venezuelan opposition leader Manuel Rosales was placed under indictment over alleged charges of corruption.Local prosecutors based their accusations of “illicit enrichment" after a two-year investigation into his former governorship of Zulia. In addition, a Congressional committee “found evasion, omission and influence peddling” in the contracting of a private firm to run Zulia’s lottery during Rosales’ time in power.
Rosales’ allies denied the charges with one opposition politico calling the charges “absolutely ridiculous”. Rosales- who was recently elected mayor of Maracaibo- was adamant (and hyperbolic) in proclaiming his innocence:
"Today we've come to confront this political lynching that they are trying to do, a terrorist trial, a political trial," said Rosales, a former presidential candidate who last month was elected mayor of Maracaibo, Venezuela's second-biggest city.Image- AP (“Opposition leader Manuel Rosales, center, surrounded by bodyguards, arrives to the state prosecutor's office in Caracas, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008.”)
"The only thing missing is for them to investigate me for the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy," Rosales told a news conference.
Sources- AP, El Universal, Voice of America, Reuters, Bloomberg
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