A complaint for sexual harassment has been filed against Chilean President Gabriel Boric for alleged facts dating back more than ten years ago and which the head of state denies “categorically”, his lawyer announced Monday evening.
“The president (…) categorically rejects the complaint” and “denies” the alleged facts, dating back to 2013 when Mr. Boric, aged 27, had just finished his law studies, explained his lawyer Jonatan Valenzuela in a press release.
The complaint was filed on September 6 by a woman with the public prosecutor’s office in Magallanes, in southern Chile, the region where Mr. Boric is from.
The attorney general of this region, Cristián Crisosto, confirmed to AFP that “there are criminal proceedings relating to the facts indicated”.
According to the defense, this complaint was filed by a woman who had sent Mr. Boric 25 emails at the time, one of which contained explicit images, without this being “neither requested nor consented to”.
Ten years later, this woman “filed a complaint without any basis against the current president Gabriel Boric,” adds the defense.
The left-wing leader, who came to power in 2022, is protected by special immunity by virtue of his function. His term will end in 2026, without the possibility of re-election.
The filing of this complaint is revealed in the midst of a scandal linked to accusations of rape against the former strongman of Mr. Boric’s government, Interior Minister Manuel Monsalve, which led to his resignation in October and his arrest in mid-November.
