A magistrate of the TrBogotá Higher Education Campus denied, This Tuesday, August 27, the appeal with which former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe I was looking for that the case against him for the alleged crimes of bribery, procedural fraud and bribery in criminal proceedings will be declared void.
Judge Manuel Antonio Merchán He noted during the hearing that “The proceedings will be returned to immediately so that the corresponding procedural process can continue.“.
(See: Former President Álvaro Uribe is accused of bribery and fraud by the Prosecutor’s Office).
The court, Merchán said, resolved to confirm the decision of May 24, 2024, in which a judge “denied the technical defense the nullity of the proceedings” and added that against this decision “no appeal is admissible.”
The decision referred to by the magistrate is the one taken by a judge who denied the request to annul the proceedings against the former president, considering it “absolutely inadmissible,” and therefore “it must be rejected outright.”
Then, The Prosecutor’s Office accused the former president of the crimes of bribery, procedural fraud and bribery in criminal proceedings, with which the former Colombian president formally became accused.
(See: The crimes for which the former Secretary of the Presidency of the Uribe Government was arrested).
Alvaro Uribe
Case that started in 2012
The long dispute dates back to 2012 when Uribe, who was a senator, sued left-wing congressman Iván Cepeda for alleged witness tampering, who at that time was preparing a complaint against him for alleged links to paramilitarism.
Contrary to what Uribe expected, The Supreme Court of Justice did not open an investigation against the leftist congressman and instead, initiated proceedings against the former president for witness tampering.
The bribery charge relates to the alleged payment of bribes to Carlos Enrique Vélez and Juan Guillermo Monsalve, who are imprisoned in the Palmira and La Picota prisons in Bogotá, respectively.
(See: Álvaro Uribe: 22 years later, an analysis of his presidential administration).
Monsalve, a former paramilitary, said that there was a whole strategy to approach him and convince him to testify against Cepeda.
The former president He has been insisting for years that this is a politically motivated case against him that lacks evidence.
Uribe resigned from his senatorial seat in August 2020 to stop having immunity and for his case to be transferred to the ordinary courts, and then the Prosecutor’s Office decided that there was no evidence to prosecute him.
(See: Uribe became the first former Colombian president to face a criminal trial).
For this reason, he requested the dismissal of the case on two occasions, which was denied by both the first instance courts and the Superior Court of Bogotá, until this year the Prosecutor’s Office decided to accuse the former president, who governed Colombia between 2002 and 2010.
EFE
