Prosecutor seeks lifting of Guatemalan president’s immunity

Anti-President Jimmy Morales signs cover a wall near Congress in Guatemala City, Friday, Sept. 15, 2017. The words reads in Spanish “Here is non-grata Jimmy. He prefers to be loyal to the mafias of Mariscal Zavala than to his dignified people.” Mariscal Zavala is a military base where former President Otto Perez Molina, who was forced from the presidency in 2015 by a corruption investigation, is in jail awaiting trial. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Guatemala’s chief prosecutor is for a second time asking that President Jimmy Morales be stripped of his immunity, this time to allow an investigation into money that he appeared to receive from the army.

Chief prosecutor Thelma Aldama says she has asked the Supreme Court to allow the process to move forward so prosecutors can look into $61,000 that banking records indicate Morales received from the army.

Aldama said Wednesday it is too early to speak of any specific crime.

Last month, Aldama and the head of a U.N. anti-corruption commission asked that Morales’ immunity be lifted for a campaign finance probe. Morales ordered the U.N. official expelled, but backed down and the Supreme Court let the request proceed to congress. But lawmakers voted twice against lifting his immunity.