El Salvadoran ex-President Mauricio Funes sentenced to 6 years for tax evasion

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — An El Salvador court has sentenced former President Mauricio Funes to six years in prison for tax evasion, the second time in barely more than a month that a court has sentenced the ex-leader in absentia. Prosecutors had asked for an eight-year sentence against Funes, who lives in Nicaragua. In late May, another tribunal sentenced Funes to 14 years in prison for negotiating with the country’s powerful street gangs during his administration. El Salvador has pursued Funes for other alleged crimes in at least a half dozen cases. The 64-year-old Funes governed from 2009 to 2014. Nicaragua gave him citizenship in 2019.