After four consecutive days of interrogation and contrainterrogatory to Álvaro Uribe, who declared as a witness in his own trial, the turn will now be for his lawyer, Juan Felipe Amaya. On day number 37, the former president’s defense gave up calling Santiago Uribe at Santiago Uribe And he announced that he will present two of the now 74 witnesses who have scheduled for this process phase.
The lawyer Juan Felipe Amaya told how he met Álvaro Uribe in the exercise of his career, when he worked in the office of the penalist Jaime Granados. First he had contact with Santiago Uribe, whom he advised in a process for injury against the major (r) Juan Carlos Meneses Quintero, for facts related to the group ‘The 12 Apostles’.
Former President Álvaro Uribe passed to the poda last Wednesday, May 7. Photo:César Melgarejo/ The time
He assured that he has represented the ex -president as a substitute lawyer in several processes, as well as a plaintiff and defendant, in his capacity as Afforado – as senator – and also as former president before the Prosecutor’s Office.
“I remember one of Hollman Morris, another of the ‘Mothers of Soacha’ and as a complainant in the process for injury and slander that filed Uribe’s defense against Senator Iván Cepeda,” said Amaya.
He said that during the case of ‘The 12 Apostles’ he knew about the statements of the witness Juan Carlos Meneses, in which he points to the Uribe Vélez brothers in the creation of this armed group. Subsequently, the statements of Colonel Benavides come to light, in which he denounces Meneses Quintero to make some offerings and take him to a meeting where They were alleged members of the North Valley poster to support their incriminations against Santiago and Álvaro Uribe.
The lawyer reported his actions to collect evidence of the case and unveil the links with the drug trafficking of the major (R) Meneses Quintero for which he traveled to the United States fishing for the drug traffickers who “falsely” incriminated to Santiago Uribe, “in revenge for the strong struggle that his brother, former president Álvaro Uribe, had against those organizations.”
Álvaro Uribe Vélez on the third day of his statement. Photo:Private archive
Subsequently, the lawyer Amaya narrated the actions that, as a substitute in the Uribe Versus Cepeda case, carried out in defense of the former president. He said how the document was built that included three letters of exparamilitaries who admitted to having received offers from the former senator to incriminate Uribe and his brother already in the creation of ‘The 12 Apostles’ in the Guacharaca hacienda.
“That day a relevant document was drafted other than the appeal for replacement. When the subscriber and Dr. Granados arrived at the steps of the Supreme Court of Justice, I do not know if before or after the replacement was filed, Dr. Granados tells me that the former president had given him a folder that has three documents and that they are manuscripts of some people and that they would be related to the case. Dr. Granados tells me to add them to the file. At that time is when I am aware of them “he said.
He also talked about the memorial of Juan Carlos Sierra, aka the ‘Tuso’ Sierra, which the former president had asked him to file him in the Court, as well as the testimony of a citizen of Pacho, Cundinamarca. These versions favored the ex -president in the case for alleged manipulation of witnesses, denialing the Cepeda version.
Finally, he told his version of Carlos Arturo Vélez, aka Victor, a witness presented by the Prosecutor’s Office as one of the alleged beneficiaries of bribes in exchange for his statement. The letter, initially, It was consigned in a role with the chain & associated letterhead, the signature of former president Uribe, Diego Cadena.
Development trial …
