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Secretary of former Guatemalan vice president turns himself in

Xinhua, October 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

The former secretary of Guatemala's disgraced ex-vice president turned himself in to the authorities Monday after six months on the lam.

Juan Carlos Monzon, the private secretary of Roxana Baldetti who is jailed over corruption charges, arrived at the central court building in downtown Guatemala City, accompanied by his lawyer.

Monzon, considered a key suspect and witness, was accused of being one of the leaders of a scheme set up to defraud the country's customs revenues.

The scheme is dubbed "The Line," as it involved a special telephone line importers could call to arrange discounts on import duties in exchange for payments to officials.

It has led to the resignation of Baldetti in May and former President Otto Perez Molina in early September, following massive protests that led the Congress to strip the president of immunity in preparation for impeachment, and has also ensnared more than two dozen other senior officials.

Monzon has been in hiding since the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) and the Public Prosecutor's Office first exposed the scheme.

According to the CICIG and the prosecutors, Monzon operated the scheme, while Molina and Baldetti pocketed the illicit payments. Endi