Colombian prosecutors say former President Uribe will face trial in witness tampering probe

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s prosecutor’s workplace mentioned Tuesday they’ll name former President Álvaro Uribe to trial for the alleged crimes of bribery of witnesses in felony proceedings and procedural fraud, which might make him the primary former president to face trial within the Andean nation.

The announcement represents a change in fact within the felony course of in opposition to Uribe because the arrival in March of a brand new lawyer basic. Beneath the earlier administration, prosecutors tried twice to shut the case after not discovering “felony duty of the defendant.” Nonetheless, these requests have been rejected by felony judges.

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The prosecution is anticipated to formalize the accusation in opposition to Uribe at a future listening to, whose date is but to be established.

If discovered responsible of the crime of procedural fraud, Uribe might withstand eight years in jail. The crime of bribing witnesses in felony proceedings could possibly be punishable by as much as twelve years in jail.

Uribe faces felony proceedings after denouncing greater than a decade in the past that an opposition senator was allegedly looking for paramilitaries to testify in opposition to him and hyperlink him to the creation of a paramilitary group.

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That senator was not prosecuted and, as an alternative, a excessive courtroom opened a felony file in opposition to Uribe to analyze whether or not he had been the one who allegedly tried to govern witnesses in opposition to his opponent.

Uribe, who served as president from 2002 to 2010, was beneath home arrest on this case for 2 months in 2020. He has at all times maintained his innocence.