[JURIST] An El Salvador court agreed on Saturday to consider a civil case against former president Mauricio Funes [official Twitter] for alleged illicit enrichment. An unexplained USD $728,000 in expenditures and income is being investigated, but no criminal charges [AP report] are attached to the case. Funes’ wife and son are also defendants in this case. The El Salvador Supreme Court [official website, in Spanish] voted [BBC report, in Spanish] in February to let the case proceed, and a lower court has just agreed to hear the case. Funes criticized the Supreme Court’s decision, alleging that the justices who voted for the case to proceed had previously held unfavorable views against his government. Government institutions are now under court order to disclose information relating to the finances of the Funes family.

The previous president of El Salvador, Francisco Flores, also faces a corruption trial [JURIST report] from a December court order on charges of embezzlement and illegal enrichment for allegedly diverting USD $15 million from Taiwanese donation to his personal and political bank accounts. Flores was taken into custody [JURIST report] in September 2014 on the corruption charges after public outcry that he remained on house arrest. Flores was returned to house arrest in November 2014. In January 2015 Funes stated that Flores attempted to flee [BBC report] the country amidst the allegations of corruption and embezzlement. Funes claimed that Flores was attempting to escape to the neighboring country of Guatemala. Former Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina is also facing corruption charges [JURIST report] and was recently detained pending investigation.