The Colombian Prosecutor’s Workplace accuses former President Uribe of three crimes

The Colombian Prosecutor’s Workplace accused Álvaro Uribe earlier than a choose this Friday of the crimes of bribery, procedural fraud and bribery in legal proceedings, so the previous Colombian president formally turns into a defendant within the case of alleged bribery of witnesses and procedural fraud.

It’s the first time that the Prosecutor’s Workplace presents fees towards Uribe (2002-2010), which had been accepted by the forty fourth legal choose of Bogotá, Sandra Liliana Heredia, who dominated that “From this second on (the previous president) acquires the standing of accused«.

In keeping with the choose’s resolution, the method towards Uribe begins formally and if the top of the Democratic Middle is discovered responsible, he may face a sentence of between 6 and 12 years in jail.

The accusation comes after the Choose denied the request for annulment of the proceedings towards the previous president, contemplating it “completely inadmissible”, so “its rejection is imposed outright, a choice towards which no attraction is admissible.«.

Likewise, the choose accepted as victims of the case the leftist senator Iván Cepeda and the previous legal professional generals Jorge Perdomo and Eduardo Montealegre, in addition to Deyanira Gómez, ex-wife of the paramilitary Juan Guillermo Monsalve, concerned within the case.

These two choices had been applauded by Cepeda’s lawyer, Reinaldo Villalba, who assured that “They’re choices that acknowledge not solely the situation of the victims but in addition the necessity for victims to have entry to justice and there to defend and declare their rights.«.

Charged crimes

The prosecutor dealing with the case, Gilberto Villarreal, accused Uribe as “figuring out the successive homogeneous competitors of three crimes of bribery in legal proceedings” due to “in your profit or that of a 3rd occasion, ship or promise a profit to an individual who witnessed a legal act in order that she or he refrains from testifying or in order that she or he fails to inform the reality in complete or partly.«.

He additionally accused him of “successive homogeneous contest of two seats for procedural fraud«, that’s as a result of «by any fraudulent means misleads a public servant to acquire a sentence, decision or administrative act opposite to the regulation«.

Additionally as “determiner of the crime of bribery» as a result of he delivered or promised «cash or different utility to a witness so that he’s utterly or partially untruthful or untruthful in his testimony«.

Case that began in 2012

The long-running lawsuit dates again to 2012, when Uribe, who was a senator, sued Cepeda for alleged witness tampering. Cepeda was then getting ready a grievance in Congress towards him for alleged hyperlinks to paramilitaries.

Opposite to Uribe’s expectations, the Supreme Courtroom of Justice didn’t open an investigation towards the left-wing congressman and, as a substitute, initiated proceedings towards the previous president for witness manipulation.

The bribery accusation has to do with the alleged cost of bribes to Carlos Enrique Vélez and Juan Guillermo Monsalve, who’re imprisoned within the Palmira and La Picota prisons in Bogotá, respectively.

Monsalve, a former paramilitary, assured that there was a complete technique to strategy him and persuade him to testify towards Cepeda.

The previous president has been insisting for years that this can be a case towards him that’s politically motivated and lacks proof.

Uribe resigned from his senatorial seat in August 2020 to cease being certified and for his case to go to the peculiar courts after which the Prosecutor’s Workplace determined that there was no proof to pursue him judicially.

For that reason, he requested the preclusion of the case on two events, which was denied each by the primary occasion courts offered and by the Superior Courtroom of Bogotá.

Nonetheless, prosecutor Villarreal took on the case on January 16 and on April 9 he said that based mostly on the bodily proof and probative parts he decided that there have been causes to accuse Uribe, which had been the judges’ conclusions when denying the preclusion. .