He former President Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010) was sentenced to a 12-year penalty that must be served in household prison for the crimes of procedural fraud and bribery in criminal action, according to a judgment released this Friday, in advance.
The document indicates that the Judge of the 44 Criminal Court of the Circuit of Bogotá, Sandra Herediawho read the ruling from 2:00 pm, decided to impose on Uribe A pity, in the first instance, of 12 years in prison, a fine of more than 3.4 billion pesos (about $ 82,000) and also disables it for more than eight years for the exercise of public rights and functions.
The judge also commissions the Rionegro Judicial Services Center, the municipality of the Department of Antioquia where the former president resides, to issue “the corresponding imprisonment ticket “and” proceed to its immediate transfer to its home where you will comply with the house prison and the respective controls will be carried out“
What happened to the former president?
Mauricio Moreno
Uribe, 73 and founder of the right -wing party Democratic Center, The first Colombian former president to be criminally convicted on Monday became Monday In the so -called ‘Judgment of the Century’ in Colombia, although his defense has already announced that he will appeal the judicial decision before the Superior Court of Bogotá.
At the Reading Hearing of the ruling, Heredia had anticipated that, for the crimes of procedural fraud and bribery in criminal action, the law provides for a conviction of “an amount greater than four years and less than eight“But the Prosecutor of the case, Marlene Orjuelarequested a greater penalty, of nine years, and a fine of 1,025 legal minimum wages, equivalent to 1,458 million Colombian pesos (about 349,000 dollars).
(Further: Judgment to Álvaro Uribe: High expectation in the prelude to reading his sentence).
However, the sentence exceeds what the judge herself and the request made by prosecutor Orjuela, which has caused surprise in the country.
Ten plus two
The sentence, of more than 1,100 pages, It sets a sentence of 91 months in prison for the crime of bribery in criminal action, with 29 months for a homogeneous contest, that is, for the participation of several people, which is equivalent to a total of 120 months or 10 years.
“Since this behavior was committed in a homogeneous contest, there were three witnesses of which bribery was accredited by interposed person, in this case Juan Guillermo Monsalve, Carlos Enrique Vélez Ramírez and Eurídice Cortés Velasco“, so, add the sentence”The penalty is increased by the two remaining crimes in 29 months for a total of 120 months in prison“
For the crime of procedural fraud, the judge established a sentence of 104 months in prison. However, he established the bribe in criminal action as the base crime and added two more years under fraud.
(You can read: What did the United States government say about the ruling against Álvaro Uribe).
“It is established that the most serious behavior turned out to be the bribery in criminal action that we will adopt as a base crime, and on it we increase in two years, by virtue of the crime of procedural fraud, therefore, the penalty is ultimately priced in 144 months in prison or what is the same 12 years in prison“, reads in the sentence.
What position did the United States did?
César Melgarejo
The condemnation and its repercussions
At Monday’s hearing, which for more than ten hours monopolized the country’s attention, the judge considered that the evidence presented by the Prosecutor’s Office in the trial were solid enough to announce against Uribe a “Condemnatory failure for punishable behaviors in criminal action, in a homogeneous contest three times and in heterogeneous competition in relation to procedural fraud“
In addition to the two crimes for which he was convicted, Uribe -a whom Heredia described as “the most powerful man in the country” – was acquitted of a third party, of simple bribery.
All as part of a process that he began in 2012 when he demanded before the Supreme Court of Justice For alleged manipulation of witnesses to the leftist congressman Iván Cepeda, who at that time prepared a complaint in the Senate against him for his alleged links with the paramilitaries.
However, Judge José Luis Barceló, who received the lawsuit, decided not to investigate Cepeda and yes to Uribe for alleged manipulation of witnesses so that they did not declare against him.
EFE
