The former FMLN deputy, Jorge Schafik Hándal, came out in defense of the ARENA party member, Ernesto Muyshondt, who is in prison for the crime of misappropriation of tax withholdings when he served as mayor of the capital.
Muyshondt is being held at the La Esperanza Penal Center, better known as “Mariona”. Nevertheless, Hándal asked that he be given the benefit of house arrest since it is a “very symbolic case,” he mentioned at the same time, adding that Muyshondt “is being a victim of a lot of bad things in jail” without giving further details or evidence of their statements.
The leftist and former congressman even acknowledged that the former mayor of the capital negotiated the lives of Salvadorans in exchange for votes for the then presidential candidate, now a PARLACEN deputy, Norman Quijano.
Despite accepting that Muyshondt gave money to the gangs to get electoral support, just as the FMLN did in the first round of the 2014 presidential elections, Hándal believes that the sandbox should be kept under house arrest.