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CP63652540 — FILE - In this Aug. 8, 2018 file photo, El Salvador\'s former President Tony Saca attends an hearing with a judge at the Isidro Menendez Judicial Complex in San Salvador, El Salvador, regarding charges of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars in government funds in return for a lighter sentence. Saca will undergo an abbreviated process and confess before a judge that he bribed a judicial employee to leak information in a civil suit against him, according to El Salvador\'s Public Prosecutor\'s Office on Wednesday, June 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, File)

El Salvador: Ex-President Saca to plead guilty to bribery

June 05 2019 07:26 AM

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – Authorities in El Salvador say ex-President Tony Saca has reached a deal to plead guilty to bribing a judicial official to leak information in a civil case against him.

Prosecutors say in a legal document that Saca will face an abbreviated judicial process and be given a two-year prison sentence, substituted by community service.

Saca’s defence had sought the deal, and prosecutors announced Wednesday they had agreed. Prosecutors said a lawyer and a former judge would also plead guilty in the case.

It would be the second time that Saca has acknowledged wrongdoing during his 2004-2009 administration.

The 54-year-old ex-president is serving a 10-year sentence after pleading guilty to diverting more than $300 million in public funds in favour of his businesses and third parties.