Costa Ricans claim innocence in FARC case

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, March 19 (UPI) -- A Costa Rican couple accused of holding $480,000 belonging to Colombian rebels said they did not know about its origins.

Former university professors Francisco Gutierrez and Cruz Prado said they were holding a safe for a Colombian man in the late 1990s without knowing the man was a senior rebel leader for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, Al Dia newspaper reported Wednesday.

Costa Rican officials said they received word of the cash at a home near San Jose from the Colombian military.

Colombia said it found out about the money during an examination of a laptop computer belonging to a Colombian rebel leader killed this month by Colombian forces inside Ecuador. The killing set off a diplomatic row among several Latin American nations, including Venezuela.