2023-05-24 05:39:17
12:01 AM
A second judicial defeat befell former president and former senator Álvaro Uribe Vélez following the decision of Judge 41 of Bogotá, Laura Estella Barrera, who decided to leave open and not preclude the investigation once morest him for procedural fraud and bribery of witnesses, conduct for which the leader of the Democratic Center has already been charged.
After several months of legal study and an extensive analysis of the case, the judge considered that there is sufficient probative elements and physical evidence to affirm “with probability of truth” that the criminal conduct of bribery did occur, a position contrary to that held until now by the Prosecutor’s Office that there was insufficient evidence to continue with Uribe’s link to this criminal file.
In this scenario, the togada Barrera stated that “there are material probative elements, physical evidence and information legally obtained to affirm with probability of truth that the criminal conduct, described in article 444A of bribery in criminal proceedings, did occur and that the doctor Uribe can have the condition of participant”.
To make the decision, Barrera indicated that the Prosecutor’s Office ignored – once more– evidence that at the time was valid for the Supreme Court of Justice, in the hands of whoever was in the case before Uribe’s resignation as senator (August 2020). For this reason, the judge called the attention of the Prosecutor’s Office, represented by the third prosecutor delegated before the Supreme Court of Justice, Javier Cárdenas, because he did not comply with the requirement to investigate everything that was required of him, even in a previous hearing on request for estoppel of the case.
“A serious effort must have been made, in order to establish all the particularities of the fact that is being investigated; in other words, to act with the greatest diligence and if, despite this rational activity, the presumption of the person under investigation cannot be distorted, the estoppel is imposed as an alternative measure,” Barrera stated.
The investigation in which former President Uribe is immersed dates back to 2014, when in the middle of a debate in Congress in which Senator Iván Cepeda denounced Uribe’s alleged ties to paramilitary groups, the former president rose from the session and He asserted that he would go to the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) to deliver evidence that Cepeda had pressured ex-paramilitaries to speak once morest him.
Already in his defense, Senator Cepeda accessed information that, apparently, the opposite would have happened and Diego Cadena – who at that time was acting as Uribe’s defense attorney – had visited some paramilitaries in prisons and had offered them gifts. as money and reduced sentences in exchange for muddying Iván Cepeda.
With all this framework, a judicial process began that has been going on for 9 years, in which situations have been experienced such as Uribe’s resignation from the Senate so that his case might go to ordinary justice, and which in April 2022 led to a judge take the decision not to preclude the investigation that is being carried out once morest Uribe.
A year ago, Judge 28 of Bogotá, Carmen Helena Ortiz, also decided to finalize the investigation once morest former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez.
On that occasion, Judge Ortiz pointed out in her decision that the Prosecutor’s Office, represented at that time by prosecutor Gabriel Jaimes, “failed to demonstrate the atypicality of the investigated conduct of procedural fraud in the case of the witnesses who were approached by Diego Cadena and Juan José Salazar, to be heard with economic offers and legal support.
With this scenario, the Prosecutor’s Office appealed the decision (a situation that was repeated in the new hearing), which led to the process falling into deja-vu and once more the Prosecutor’s Office will use that tool, which resulted in another one being carried out this Wednesday. procedure in which the investigative entity will justify why it withdrew the requested evidence and investigation and why it appealed, and in which the other parties may also present the arguments: the Attorney General’s Office, which has supported the Prosecutor’s request, Uribe’s attorneys and the defense lawyers of Iván Cepeda, a senator implicated in the case who sent a message from Cuba, where he is participating in the negotiating table with the ELN.
“As we have done for the last eleven years, in which this judicial process has lasted, together with my lawyers we respect and abide by the decision of justice. Decisions made today by Judge 41 of Knowledge in the case once morest former President Álvaro Uribe. We hope that this decision contributes to the truth, justice and reconciliation among Colombians”, she warned.
With this scenario, the case of former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez might become a spiral, because, as the lawyer Francisco Bernate explains before the appeal of the Prosecutor’s Office, “now it will be a criminal decision Chamber of the Bogotá Court that has the last word, confirmed or revoked”, the decision of the judge 41 of knowledge of Bogotá.
After that, a new prosecutor must be found to take over the process, as happened in 2022 when prosecutor Jaimes stepped aside to make way for the arrival of Cárdenas.
In this context, EL COLOMBIANO explains that he is coming for a judicial case with a high political connotation.
With the appeal of the Prosecutor’s Office, the hearing will continue this Wednesday with the support of why the ruling was appealed by the accusing entity. Then it will be the parties, the defense of the former president and the representatives of the victims who will take the floor and, finally, it will be a Criminal Decision Chamber of the Superior Court of Bogotá that will have the last word, confirming or revoking the estoppel.
If the court agrees with Judge Barrera, the case returns to the Prosecutor’s Office, which would appoint another prosecutor and this would be in charge of deciding whether to present an accusation before a circuit judge; or if with “new arguments and new grounds you can try another preclusion”, explained the criminal lawyer Francisco Bernate.
This would be the third preclusion that the prosecuting entity would attempt in this case. But it must be clarified that there is a legal thesis in which the same prosecutor might keep the file to request once more, as Bernate said, another estoppel.
Judge 41 of Bogotá argued that she did not preclude the investigation of this conduct, because there are several documentary and testimonial evidence that former President Uribe would have given the order for the lawyer Diego Cadena to visit prisons and meet with former paramilitaries.
The objective would be for the lawyer to offer legal and economic benefits if they retracted the accusations made once morest the former president. According to the judge, all this was known to Uribe due to the constant communication that he maintained with Cadena and, apparently, he gave him precise instructions on how to proceed.