“(There is) evidence that proves that I never ordered to look for witnesses but to corroborate information that came to me. That I never took the initiative to offer a benefit (…) nor did it cross my mind to ask them to lie or hide the truth. That it is not true that he tried to deceive justiceUribe said in a virtual statement from his farm in northern Colombia.
On Wednesday, a judge rejected the prosecutor’s request to file the case involving the 69-year-old former president and senator.
The first instance decision can be appealed by the defense of Uribe, who governed between 2002 and 2010 with a heavy-handed security policy against leftist guerrillas that was applauded and criticized.
The political weight and popularity of the former president – head of the party in power and mentor of the current president Iván Duque – make his case transcend the legal field and more so when there is one month left for the presidential elections on May 29.
If a higher court finally upholds the judge’s ruling, Uribe will have to go to trial and could eventually be sentenced to prison for two related crimes (bribery and procedural fraud), which in Colombia are punished with eight years in prison.
Uribe refuted the judge’s arguments one by one and said that he has not “been a swindler as the ideological charge” of his counterpart would have you believe.
Opponent of the peace process with the ex-guerrilla FARCUribe is not only the head of the Democratic Center (in power since August 2018), he was also the most voted senator and protagonist in the electoral campaigns since he left power.
However, support for the most influential politician of this century in Colombia has dwindled, according to polls.
Uribe – singled out on several fronts for links with drug traffickers and paramilitaries – ended up entangled in an unexpected turn of justice.
In 2012, he filed a complaint against the left-wing senator Ivan Cepeda for an alleged plot against him supported by false testimonies.
Uribe maintains that Cepeda -one of his greatest political opponents and a witness in his trial- contacted imprisoned ex-paramilitaries to get him involved in criminal activities by far-right groups that fought leftist guerrillas.
But Colombia’s Supreme Court refrained from prosecuting Cepeda and instead began investigating the former president in his capacity as a parliamentarian in 2018. The magistrates concluded that Uribe tried to manipulate witnesses to discredit his opponent.
“Uribe’s rancorous speech about the decision of 4/27 consisted of new insults to the magistrates, the victims and our representatives. None of that will be worth in the trial that is coming,” Senator Cepeda warned on Twitter.
The court ordered the former president’s house arrest in August 2020 while he advanced his investigation.
Uribe, who questioned the Supreme Court for alleged political bias, managed to escape from that jurisdiction by resigning the seat he had held in the Senate since 2014. His file then went to an ordinary court, which lifted the imprisonment order that weighed on the former president. .
The prosecution took over the investigation and last year asked the court to file the case on the grounds that there was no crime.
However, the judge dismissed the arguments of the prosecutor Gabriel Jaimes and gave way to the possible prosecution of the former president.
Source: Ambito
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
