Uribe's cousin turns himself in, amid alleged far-right ties

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2008

BOGOTA (AFP) — A cousin of President Alvaro Uribe sought for alleged links to right-wing paramilitary squads turned himself in Tuesday, after Costa Rica denied him asylum at its embassy, an AFP reporter said.

Mario Uribe surrendered to Attorney General officials at the embassy, where he went to in the morning and waited for nine hours for an answer to his political asylum request.

The Costa Rican Foreign Ministry turned him down, saying his asylum bid was "inadmissible," and stressing that the "historical tradition of asylum must not be defiled" by somebody charged with promoting outlawed armed groups.

The former lawmaker was escorted out of the embassy and driven away in a van amid a throng of reporters and human rights activists who were demanding Costa...