Fugitive Chilean politician Karen Rojo, convicted of fraud, arrested in Ter Apel
A Chilean politician who was convicted of defrauding the public treasury there was arrested in Ter Apel, Groningen on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Dutch Public Prosecutor's Office (OM) in Rotterdam told NL Times. Karen Rojo Venegas, the former mayor of Antofagasta, will remain in custody in the Netherlands while the court decides how to handle her extradition.
Cristian Aguilar Aranela, the Chief Prosecutor of Antofagasta, Chile was the first to announce the arrest on Wednesday. His office said that Dutch police officers detained Rojo at their request. He initially said that she was placed into custody in Rotterdam, but the OM said that she was actually detained in Ter Apel.
Rojo was convicted of funnelling public funds earmarked for healthcare and school grants to a political strategist assisting her with her 2016 re-election campaign, according to Radio Cooperativa. The payments spanned nearly a year, starting in October 2015, and totalled nearly 24 million Chilean pesos, roughly equivalent to 31,000 euros in 2016. The fraud was uncovered by the Comptroller's office, which led to her criminal trial, prosecutors said. She was convicted on New Year's Eve 2020, and later sentenced to serve five years and one day in prison.
Rojo appealed the case to Chile's highest court, which rejected her request to vacate the conviction on March 23. The court ruled that she had to serve every day of the sentence ordered by the lower court. She was already at the international airport in Santiago when the ruling was handed down. Within minutes, she boarded an overnight KLM flight from Santiago to Amsterdam, Aguilar said that week. Prosecutors in Chile alleged she purchased her airline tickets a day before the verdict was made public. Aside from the nonstop to Amsterdam, she was to fly from the Dutch capital to Paris for a return flight to Santiago on April 10.
The return flight was necessary to enter the Netherlands as a tourist, the regional Chilean prosecutor's office alleged. The office issued a request for extradition less than a week after her departure from the country's capital, which was upheld by an appeals court there.
Aguilar confirmed on Wednesday that his office will continue to seek Rojo's extradition to Chile, and that a Dutch court will determine what happens next. "We hope that the process is carried out as expeditiously as possible," Aguilar said to Radio Cooperativa. He later said on Twitter he expected the process to take between six and eight weeks.
The spokesperson for the OM confirmed it could take several weeks for the court to set a date for her extradition hearing. She will remain in jail at least until that time.
