Former Chilean mayor Karen Rojo, who fled last March after being convicted of tax fraud, was arrested this Wednesday in the Netherlands, reported the Antofagasta Prosecutor’s Office, the northern city where she governed between 2012 and 2020.

Prosecutor Cristián Aguilera explained that Rojo was arrested on the outskirts of Amsterdam during the early hours of the morning and that she is “at the disposal of the Rotterdam Court”, which has to rule on the extradition request made by Chile.

“We hope that the process will be carried out as expeditiously as possible.”, he added.

Rojo escaped on March 23 to avoid a sentence of five years and one day in prison for a tax fraud crime committed between 2015 and 2016 in the framework of the so-called “Main Case”.

According to the conviction, the former conservative mayor hired the services of the Main Communications company to improve her image for the 2016 re-election using public funds for education and health worth 24 million pesos (about 24,000 dollars).

The prosecutor specified that Rojo does not risk an increase in the sentence because he did not have precautionary measures when he left Chile and that the same Rotterdam court determined preventive detention while the extradition procedure is processed.

“No one is above the law, not even those who have held or hold positions of authority. Whoever breaks the law will be prosecuted and punished. This is a sign that there is no impunity.” For his part, the Undersecretary of Public Security, Manuel Monsalve, indicated.

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