Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe blasts impending prison costs | Crime Information

Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has denounced the fees he faces as an act of political retribution, as he confronts the prospect of a history-making prison case.

By no means earlier than has a Colombian president stood trial on prison costs. However earlier this week, the workplace of Colombia’s legal professional basic, Luz Adriana Camargo Garzon, introduced that prosecutors would file a prison grievance alleging Uribe participated in witness tampering and fraud.

On Wednesday, Uribe responded with a video assertion broadcast to social media.

“The trial is being carried out for political persecution, for private condemnation, for political revenge, with out proof that I sought to bribe witnesses or deceive justice,” Uribe, 71, mentioned.

He underscored that there was no proof linking him to any wrongdoing, nor to any of the paramilitary teams embroiled in Colombia’s decades-long inside battle.

“They’re opening the doorways of the jail with out proof,” Uribe added.

His political get together, the right-wing Democratic Heart group, additionally took to social media to precise help for the previous president.

The group mentioned it acquired the information of the pending prison costs with “ache and unhappiness”.

“Like a big majority of Colombians who’ve believed and supported Alvaro Uribe Velez, the Democratic Heart maintains its agency conviction within the innocence and honourability of the previous president whose work and legacy in Colombia have been achieved with infinite love and an important dedication to the nation,” the Democratic Heart wrote in a post on Tuesday.

To date, the prison costs have but to be filed, and no listening to has been set.

However a conviction for witness tampering might carry a sentence of as much as 12 years. On the procedural fraud cost, Uribe might withstand eight years.

Uribe has lengthy been underneath scrutiny for alleged crimes dedicated underneath his administration, which lasted two phrases, from 2002 to 2010.

Tuesday’s announcement stems largely from decade-old accusations that Uribe tried to silence witnesses who tied him to the creation and actions of a right-wing paramilitary group.

In 2014, a left-wing senator named Ivan Cepeda raised considerations within the legislature that Uribe had hyperlinks to the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), a paramilitary organisation accused of human rights abuses and drug trafficking.

Colombia has been embroiled in a six-decade-long inside battle, with authorities forces, far-right paramilitaries, left-wing rebels and prison organisations all competing for energy and territory.

Whereas in workplace, Uribe cultivated a fame for taking a strong-armed method to the leftist insurgent teams, deploying the navy in opposition to organisations just like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Nationwide Liberation Military (ELN).

He was additionally thought of an in depth ally of the USA throughout its international “struggle on medication”.

However Uribe’s ways elicited considerations about human rights violations. Beneath his administration, the navy was accused of killing civilians in distant areas and counting them as enemy combatants, a string of incidents often known as the “false positives” scandal.

After leaving workplace, Uribe continued to exert vital sway over Colombian politics, even main a marketing campaign in opposition to a 2016 peace take care of the FARC.

This week, his supporters took to social media to defend the favored former president with the hashtag #CreoEnUribe or “I imagine in Uribe”.

After Senator Cepeda raised questions on Uribe’s alleged ties to the AUC paramilitary, prosecutors say the previous president tried to steer witnesses to retract their statements.

A type of witnesses is predicted to be Juan Guillermo Montsalve, a former paramilitary member who claims Uribe helped to broaden the AUC.

Montsalve has beforehand accused Uribe of utilizing his lawyer, Diego Cadena, to supply him bribes in alternate for withdrawing his testimony.

The announcement of impending prison costs comes shortly after Camargo Garzon was elected legal professional basic in March.

She was one in all three candidates President Gustavo Petro put earlier than the Supreme Court docket for a vote. In energy since 2022, Petro is taken into account the primary left-wing chief elected in Colombia.

The Supreme Court docket beforehand launched the investigation into Uribe. Twice, prosecutors had tried to finish the investigation — and in each instances, judges had rejected their requests.

Uribe was positioned underneath home arrest in 2020 whereas the investigation into the witness tampering allegations unfolded.