Chilean authorities confirm sexual harassment investigation against President Gabriel Boric

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chilean President Gabriel Boric is under investigation for sexual harassment, authorities confirmed Tuesday after his personal lawyer sought to portray the head of state as a victim of online stalking.

The country’s attorney general, Cristián Crisosto, in a statement said prosecutors have opened “a criminal case related to” allegations filed by an unidentified woman in September.

The complaint alleges sexual harassment as well as the leaking of private images. Crisosto did not provide details of the alleged events, or say when or where they took place.

Boric, 38, has denied the accusations through his attorney, Jonatan Valenzuela, who in a statement described the president as “the victim of systematic harassment via email.” The alleged harassment occurred between July 2013 and July 2014, when Boric was an intern in the southern Chilean city of Punta Arenas, near the Patagonia, and was already a well-known figure in national politics thanks to his role in student-led protests a couple of years earlier.

Valenzuela said Boric “never had an emotional or friendly relationship” with the woman and both have not been in communication since July 2014 when she is alleged to have sent the last of dozens of emails, some with explicit images, to the now president.

Valenzuela said his team handed authorities all communications between Boric and the woman after learning of her complaint, to “clarify the status of the president as a victim.”