A former Costa Rican president who briefly served as chief of the Organisation of American States was convicted of corruption charges Wednesday and sentenced to five years in prison. Capping a yearlong trial, a judge found Miguel Angel Rodriguez guilty of instigating corruption but absolved him of illegal enrichment, citing reasonable doubt. He was also barred from any government jobs for 12 years.
Rodriguez, 71, was president in 1998-2002. He became OAS president in 2004 but the corruption scandal forced him to resign two weeks into his tenure. Rodriguez and other former government officials were charged with taking bribes in exchange for giving the Latin American branch of the French telecom company Alcatel a $149 million cellphone contract with the Costa Rican Electricity Institute while he was president in 2001. Seven others charged in the case were sentenced to between five and 20 years in prison. Rodriguez, who maintains his innocence, listened to Judge Rosaura Garcia's verdict with a stony expression. An hour earlier, he had arrived at court surrounded by family and smiling widely. "What reasons did they have for saying I was an instigator?" Rodriguez said at a news conference that he abruptly ended and stormed out.