2 women drop sex abuse case against Costa Rica ex-president
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — Two women who had lodged sexual abuse complaints against Nobel Peace Prize laureate and two-time Costa Rican President Oscar Arias have withdrawn those complaints.
The prosecutors office said Monday that “the two victims decided not to continue the criminal process.”
The decision to drop the complaints means that a court could drop the charges, given that it appears prosecutors have no other evidence to rely on in the case.
There was no immediate explanation for the victims' decisions.
Rafael Rodríguez, a lawyer for former Miss Costa Rica Yasmín Morales, who filed one of the complaints, said he could not comment on the decision to drop it. Rodriguez simply said “for us, this is over on the legal level.”
The other woman did not respond to text messages seeking comment. In 2019, Arias met with prosecutors to give a statement in the two criminal complaints against him which alleged sexual assault and sexual abuse in 2014 and 2015.
The 1987 Peace Prize winner denied the first accusation when it surfaced earlier that year.
