This Friday, May 24, the Prosecutor’s Office formally accused the former president, Álvaro Uribe, of alleged bribery of witnesses and procedural fraud.
At the same time, The Superior Court will define whether or not it accepts Jorge Perdomo, Deyanira Gómez and Luis Eduardo Montealegre as victims.
Gilberto Iván Villarreal, the first prosecutor delegated to the Supreme Court of Justice, was the one who presented the indictment against former President Uribe.
In the document, the Prosecutor’s Office stated that former President Uribe would have determined his then lawyer Diego Cadena so that witnesses “lacked the truth or partially concealed it.”
It should be remembered that Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia, of the 44th Criminal Court of Bogotá, denied a request for annulment of the entire investigation being carried out against Uribe for alleged witness manipulation. Furthermore, to prevent it from becoming a delaying strategy, she did not allow him to file appeals.
Álvaro Uribe case: this is how the process began
The process began in 2018, with an investigation that the Supreme Court carried out against Senator Iván Cepeda after a political control debate called by the left-wing politician. Cepeda revealed testimonies from former paramilitaries that pointed to Uribe for alleged links with paramilitarism, mainly in Antioquia.
The Investigative Chamber of the Supreme Court continued its course, calling Uribe for investigation in 2019 before Judge César Reyes and in August 2020 ordering the former senator to be detained preventively at his residence. The next step was to accuse him, but before that happened Uribe resigned from Congress, so his file was passed to the Prosecutor’s Office.
Contrary to the high court, the Prosecutor’s Office tried to close the case. The first request came on behalf of the then coordinator of prosecutors delegated to the Court, Gabriel Jaimes, head of Villarreal, and the second, by the prosecutor Javier Cárdenas. One judge denied the preclusion to Jaimes and another to Cárdenas, who appealed and received another denial from the Bogotá Court. With the change of prosecutor, it was decided to take him to trial.
*News in development…
