Judge keeps open case against Uribe for alleged witness tampering

Judge Laura Barrera, of the 41st Criminal Trial Court of Bogotá, denied the estoppel in the case against the former president of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe Vélez. The right-wing leader, who led the country between 2002 and 2010, is accused of alleged bribery of witnesses and procedural fraud.

Thus, the former president is closer to going to trial. After analyzing Uribe’s defense and what was said by the Prosecutor’s Office, the office considers that there is evidence that the former president may have “the condition of participating” in the crime of bribery and witness tampering.

“Yes, there are material probative elements, physical evidence and legally obtained information that allow us to affirm with a probability of truth that the criminal conduct of bribery in criminal proceedings did occur and that Dr. Uribe may have the condition of participant,” the judge’s office ruled. .

Last year, the Prosecutor’s Office had requested for the second time the closure of the case, after arguing that Uribe’s conduct did not constitute a crime.

Uribe, who has always expressed his innocence, was investigated for alleged witness tampering to discredit accusations that he had ties to paramilitaries in the 1990s.

Barrera ruled that she will not be the one who leads the trial. While Uribe and his lawyer have not yet ruled on these conclusions. For its part, the Prosecutor’s Office can still appeal the decision.

Alleged witness tampering

The case began in 2012 when Uribe accused leftist senator Iván Cepeda of orchestrating a plot to link him to paramilitaries. At that time, the legislator was preparing a case against Uribe for his alleged ties to these armed groups.

But the Supreme Court of Justice decided not to open an investigation against the leftist congressman and, instead, began a process against Uribe for alleged witness tampering.

In 2018, the Court began an investigation against Uribe for procedural fraud and bribery. After having collected information from ex-combatants, the Supreme Court ruled that Cepeda had not paid or pressured ex-paramilitaries, but found evidence suggesting that Uribe and his allies had indeed pressured witnesses.

Thus, they accused the former president of having tried to manipulate ex-paramilitaries into testifying against Cepeda through third parties, such as the lawyer Diego Cadena.

On August 4, 2020, the Supreme Court Investigation Chamber ordered Uribe’s house arrest, but two weeks later, the former president resigned from his Senate seat. An action that also resulted in the Supreme Court of Justice losing its jurisdiction in the case, which passed into the hands of the Prosecutor’s Office. Uribe’s detention lasted more than two months before a judge lifted the order.

In April 2021, the then prosecutor of the file, Gabriel Jaimes Durán, asked to close the case against Uribe, something that was denied a year later.

Later, the new prosecutor, Javier Cárdenas, did his own investigation and also requested the closure of the process. The prosecutor argued that Uribe had never asked the witnesses to lie and that he had simply asked them to tell the truth.

However, the lawyer Cadena, accused of having offered rewards so that the ex-paramilitaries changed their testimonies in favor of Uribe, is on trial for these events and was suspended for three years from practicing his profession.

Judge Barrera considers that the Prosecutor’s Office failed to prove the complete innocence of the former president.

Various investigations against Uribe

Álvaro Uribe is one of the most influential politicians in the country in recent decades. He was president of Colombia between 2002 and 2010 before becoming a senator in 2014.

During his terms, Uribe led a military offensive against leftist guerrilla groups. He was recently accused by former paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancuso of having close ties to the paramilitaries and even receiving their support for the political campaign that brought him to power in 2002.

In response, Uribe announced that he will denounce Mancuso in court for allegedly false accusations.

Paramilitary groups emerged in Colombia in the 1980s and launched a bloody fight against the guerrillas. They have been accused of widespread human rights violations, including murder, rape, disappearances and torture. Some of its members demobilized, along with part of the guerrilla groups, under a peace agreement during Uribe’s term.

The former president was investigated in several massacres committed by paramilitaries in the department of Antioquia, when he was governor of that department located in the west of Colombian territory. The Supreme Court of Justice investigated the massacres of El Aro and La Granja, which occurred between 1995 and 1997, after several ex-paramilitaries affirmed that the then-governor helped them plan the events that left several civilian deaths.

The Prosecutor’s Office opened a preliminary investigation against Uribe in 2000, but that same year the process was archived, before being reopened in 2013.

In 2017, Uribe was investigated for another case. This time for his conduct in the case of illegal wiretapping of journalists and opponents that occurred during his term together with theThe former director of the now defunct Administrative Security Department (DAS), Jorge Noguera. The official would have requested follow-up “arbitrarily and unfairly” to magistrates, journalists and human rights defenders.

The Colombian Supreme Court investigated the case, and according to its findings, Uribe was aware of the illegal wiretapping and participated in it along with Noguera. But, the former president has denied any inappropriate conduct and the case remains the subject of controversy in Colombia.

Now found guilty in the witness tampering case, Uribe could face up to 12 years in jail.

With EFE, Reuters and local media