The former president Álvaro Uribe has his legal artillery list in the trial he faces for alleged bribery to witnesses and procedural fraud. This will be his only opportunity to demonstrate that he did not resort to an illegal strategy or manipulated false testimonies arising in prisons in the country.
From today, lawyer Jaime Granados has the ball on his court with the presentation of technical, documentary and testimonial evidence. This opens a new chapter, after the exposure of the probative material by the Prosecutor’s Office.
In total, the defense requested 77 witnesses. The first is Álvaro Uribe himself. The ex -president announced that he will go to the courts of Paloquemao, in Bogotá, to pay his testimony. It is estimated that at least at least two days will be extended.
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A day that promises to be intense, Of those to “rent a balcony”.
In an interview with El Colombiano, both lawyer Granados and Senator Iván Cepeda – victim recognized in the process – detailed their expectations in the face of this new phase and explained why, from each shore, they feel winners of the case.
Dr. Granados, how was the defense after the presentation of the evidence by the Prosecutor’s Office?
“The balance can only be positive, highly positive from the perspective of defense. What we have seen is that the Prosecutor’s Office, as it had to be, flatly failed to prove its theory of the case.”
Because?
“when this trial began, the Prosecutor’s Office promised that he was going to prove that Álvaro Uribe Vélez directly determined several people, especially Diego Javier Cadena Ramírez, for the commission of the crimes of false testimony. However, at any time of the 37 witnesses who finally declared for the Prosecutor’s Office and in any of the evidences shown there, a single one appears that a sign that Álvaro Uribe. To the truth, or that it will silence it totally or partially, or that it did not attend the justice, much less than it did under a promise of money or under any type of gift or benefit ”.
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If it was not Álvaro Uribe, who did the offerings to false witnesses?
“What was seen here was how there were offerings and as multiple witnesses they pointed out that Iván Cepeda who made those offers to the witnesses to point to the brothers Uribe Vélez, Álvaro and Santiago. Then, I believe that from that point of view, this initial stage of the prosecution’s evidence could not be more positive because it was clear that there was no evidence that Álvar failed flatly. ”
From his perspective, was what Diego Cadena did normal, to give money to witnesses?
“That lawyer (chain) offered to support Álvaro Uribe in the achievement of information that he received, verify the data he received and, in some cases, even find out if there were additional or complementary data. Never Álvaro Uribe asked him to do something improper. Given a single penny to any witness, but this fact that he has not informed him – which, of course, places in a plane totally oblivious to the levels of Diego Cadena’s behavior – does not mean that Diego Cadena has done something improper from the criminal legal point of view. ”
With what purpose was chain to help Juan Guillermo Monsalve with his legal status?
“That has been the only battle knight that has had this case, also illegal, where Diego Cadena informs Álvaro Uribe Vélez who had offered a review action to Juan Guillermo Monsalve. That offer was done by Diego Javier Cadena Ramírez on February 22, 2018, in the pillory, when he visited Juan Guillermo Monsalve. That was established and did it because the subject arose in a conversation where he was present in a conversation where he was present in a conversation. The lawyer Héctor Romero, who was a lawyer from that time of Monsalve.
Are they going to base part of the defense on which Álvaro Uribe did not know what the lawyer’s lawyer was doing?
Do you consider that there are sufficient guarantees to achieve acquittal?
“With the advertising that this process has had, I believe that it guarantees that everyone has realized the absolute absence of evidence against Álvaro Uribe Vélez, of his innocence, and on that basis I do not believe that there is any judge in Colombia capable of making a decision that disrespects the evidence so clearly exposed and publicly seen. What happened with the Prosecutor’s Office is sufficient so that they were exonerating Uribe Vélez.”
