Ex-lawmaker in Colombia bribery scandal poses nude
BOGOTA (Reuters) - A disgraced ex-lawmaker who threw Colombian politics into turmoil by saying President Alvaro Uribe's re-election was tainted by corruption added body to the scandal on Tuesday by appearing naked on the cover of a magazine.
Yidis Medina was found guilty last month of taking illegal favors from government officials in return for voting for the constitutional amendment that permitted the 2006 re-election.
Monthly men's magazine SoHo showed a curvaceous Medina posing nude while in jail, her hands covering her breasts in one shot as she looks peacefully into the distance. The 12-page photo spread is titled "Body of Crime".
In the accompanying interview, Medina doesn't explain why she posed for the magazine but says she is ready to leave politics behind. "What I want is to get out of political life, which has brought me so many unwelcome things," she said.
Medina was sentenced to nearly four years of house arrest but will remain in prison while she is investigated as part of a separate kidnapping case.
She says she went public with her tale of corruption after the government failed to deliver favors -- including being able to name her friends to local commissions in her home province -- that it had promised in exchange for her vote.
The case ignited a political firestorm in which Uribe angrily called for a rerun of the 2006 vote.
(Reporting by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
