Magaly Medina, the Peruvian television journalist, has filed a criminal complaint against former footballer Jefferson Farfán after receiving extortion and kidnapping threats, her lawyer confirmed.
Fernando Ugaz Zegarra told the program Ocurre Ahora, hosted by Mávila Huertas, that the messages sent to Medina contained information that could only be known to people connected to the ongoing legal case between her and Farfán.
Ugaz said his team had filed the complaint because, in their view, Farfán was the indirect author, or autor mediato, of the situation. He said every piece of data pointed in that direction and that there was no room for half measures on the matter.
Prosecutor's office yet to open case
The lawyer said his office had asked Peru's Ministerio Público, the public prosecutor's office, to investigate the origin of the communications, and that his team had since received a notice to give a statement. He said a complaint had been filed against Farfán, that prosecutors had not yet opened a formal investigation, and that his team had been called to testify the following week.
According to Ugaz, the messages Medina received included sensitive details tied directly to her legal dispute with Farfán. He said the process referenced in the chats began with a demand for payment of a civil reparation debt, and that the messages specified where Farfán would carry out community service, along with the exact hours and days. He added that the messages also referred to Farfán's legal defense, his lawyer and his family.
Lawyer says information is not public
Ugaz stressed that this information was not publicly available, and that its appearance in threatening messages amounted to a serious indication of wrongdoing. Asked whether the material could have leaked through a data breach, he said there was no evidence that any system had been compromised, but he insisted prosecutors needed to establish how the information had reached whoever sent it.
He called for the case to be handled quickly and investigated thoroughly. He said filing the complaint was a way of telling the authorities that the situation was happening, and that his working theory was that the threats were linked to Farfán and to the legal proceedings between them. He called on the prosecutor's office to investigate the matter.
Who are Magaly Medina and Jefferson Farfán
Medina is one of Peru's best-known broadcasters, hosting the long-running entertainment program Magaly TV, la firme, where she reports on celebrity news and has frequently clashed publicly with public figures over the years. Farfán is a former Peru international forward who spent much of his career in Europe with clubs including PSV Eindhoven and Schalke 04, and is regarded as one of the most prominent figures in Peruvian football.
The complaint against Farfán comes amid a separate, ongoing legal dispute between him and Medina, elements of which, according to Ugaz, appeared in the threatening messages she received.
What happens next
Ugaz said the prosecutor's office had not opened a formal investigation at the time of his statements, but that his legal team had been summoned to appear the following week. He said he expected the Ministerio Público to examine the origin of the messages as part of that process.
