Judge denies estoppel to former president Álvaro Uribe, he could go to trial

A judge of the 41st Criminal Court of Bogotá denied, for the second time, filing an investigation against former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez, for alleged witness tampering and procedural fraud.

Judge Laura Becerra pointed out that the Prosecutor’s Office did not present the arguments that were necessary to close the case and decided not to preclude the first act against the former president, since he allegedly participated in the bribery of the witness Juan Guillermo Monsalve, through the lawyer Diego Cadena.

According to Becerra, “it is clear that the investigative entity has had to make a serious effort in order to establish all the particular facts that are being investigated, in other words, to act more diligently.”

“Contrary to what was asserted by the prosecutor, there are probative elements, physical evidence and information legally obtained that allow us to affirm with a probability of truth that the criminal conduct of bribery did occur, and that Dr. Uribe may have the condition of participant,” he said. the judge.

The former president accused leftist senator Iván Cepeda in 2012 of organizing a plot to falsely link him to paramilitary squads, during visits to former members of those groups in prisons.

But in February 2018, the court that investigates all criminal matters involving lawmakers said Cepeda had collected information as part of his job and had not paid or pressured ex-paramilitaries. Instead, the court asserted that Uribe pressured witnesses through third parties.

Uribe spent two months under arrest in 2020, at his farm near the city of Montería, the capital of the department of Córdoba, after the Supreme Court ordered his house arrest citing risk of obstruction of justice.

In October 2020, he regained his freedom, by order of a judge, after he resigned from the Senate and the Supreme Court of Justice transferred the process to the Attorney General’s Office because it was an investigation unrelated to his position as a congressman. His critics assured that it was a ploy to take the case in a potentially less rigorous legal body and directed by a person close to former President Iván Duque.

The case could end with a prison sentence of up to 12 years for the politician.

The judge’s decision can be appealed by the Attorney General’s Office before the Superior Court of Bogotá, a higher instance in the Colombian judicial system that could confirm the ruling or revoke it.

[Con información de Reuters]

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