The ruling annulled the twelve-year prison sentence against the former Colombian president and questioned the assessment of evidence in the first instance. The case may be appealed to the Supreme Court.
He Superior Court of Bogotá revoked the conviction of twelve years of house arrest to the former president Alvaro Uribewho had been found guilty of three crimes of bribery and two of procedural fraud. In their ruling, the justices questioned the “poor technique” from the judge Sandra Heredia and dismissed several key recordings used as evidence in the original sentencing.
The ruling, issued this Tuesday, represents a significant judicial turn in the most emblematic case against a former Colombian president. The magistrates of the Superior Court of Bogotá They maintained that the initial sentence “lacked legal rigor” and presented a biased assessment of the testin addition to annulling the recordings obtained within the framework of the investigation, considered fundamental in the conviction.
Uribe, founder of the Democratic Center partyhad become the past August 1 in it first former Colombian president criminally convictedafter being found guilty of procedural fraud and bribery in criminal proceedings. However, the defense appealed the decision, considering that there were no solid legal grounds, an argument that was now supported by the court of second instance.
Despite this revocation, the judicial process has not finished: the decision can be appealed to the Supreme Court of Justicewhich will have the last word on Uribe’s acquittal or eventual conviction. This litigation has been going on for more than thirteen years going through the Colombian courts and could reach a definitive definition in the coming months.
The origin of the cause dates back to 2012when Uribe, then senator, denounced Ivan Cepeda for witness manipulation in cases linked to paramilitary groups. The Supreme Court Not only did he dismiss the complaint, but he opened an investigation against Uribe himself when he found evidence that his entourage would have tried to influence statements by former paramilitaries.
Among the evidence was a recording made by Juan Guillermo Monsalvea key witness who claimed to have received offers of Diego CadenaUribe’s lawyer, to change his testimony. That recording, which was one of the centerpieces of the sentencenow it was annulled by the courtwhich substantially weakens the accusation against the former president.
A cause that shook Colombian politics
The sentence against Uribe, who is considered one of the most influential leaders of recent decades in Colombia, generated a strong institutional and political stir. It is the first time in the history of the country that a former president is criminally convicted.
The case began to take shape in 2018when the Supreme Court detected irregularities in testimonies used by Uribe to denounce the senator Ivan Cepeda. Years before, Cepeda had presented statements from former paramilitaries that linked the former president to illegal structures during his tenure as governor of Antioch. Uribe responded with a complaint, but the magistrates considered that he was the one who manipulated witnesses.
In 2020was subjected to house arrest for 67 daysa situation that led him to resign from his Senate seat and thus move from the orbit of the high court to ordinary justice. The process faced several preclusion attempts, all rejected, until in 2024 the new attorney general Luz Adriana Camargo formalized the accusations.
Source: Ambito
