Colombian Supreme Court summons Chamber of Deputies head for thesis plagiarism

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Colombian Supreme Court has summoned the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Jennifer Arias, after the University of Colombia determined that she plagiarized her Master’s degree thesis in Government and Public Policy.

The deposition has been called for December 13, when she will be able to present her version, together with her thesis partner, Leydi Lucía Largo, currently coordinator of the Control Office of the Chamber of Deputies.

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The university submitted the text of the thesis to a computer tool for the detection of plagiarism, “an operation that yielded a significant number of coincidences with sources or documents published on the Internet by authors other than Ms. Arias and Ms. Largo”.

The university has specified that it will ask the Council of State to annul the degrees issued and will send the “relevant documentation” to the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice and to the Prosecutor’s Office. However, the educational institution currently lacks the competence to carry out disciplinary proceedings or revoke issued degrees.

Arias has reiterated that she has not plagiarized her final degree work. “With the tranquility of always acting under the precepts of the law, I state that I have not committed any plagiarism,” she said through her account on the social network Twitter.