The former president resigned on Tuesday from the seat he held in the Senate since 2014, arguing that he is a victim of procedural violations by the CSJ.
By:
EFE
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Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, in house arrest for a week for alleged procedural fraud and bribery of witnesses, asked the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) to forward his file to the Attorney General’s Office, confirmed this Thursday 20-A his defense.
“Yesterday, the defense of President Álvaro Uribe formalized before the Special Investigation Chamber of the Supreme Court the request for referral of the case to the Attorney General’s Office according to the Colombian legal establishment that determines it,” he reported this Thursday August 20 in a statement the lawyer Jaime Granados.
Uribe resigned Tuesday from the seat he held in the Senate since 2014 on the grounds that he is a victim of procedural violations by the Supreme Court.
His lawyers now hope that since he does not have the jurisdiction of a congressman, which is why the Court was handling the case, his process will go to the ordinary Justice and the Prosecutor’s Office will take over his file.
“The Political Constitution as well as the jurisprudence of the high court clearly determine that in this case, as in any other in which the facts investigated are not related to parliamentary activity, this transfer will be carried out,” added Granados.
On August 4, the Supreme Court ordered Uribe’s house arrest, considering that there are risks of him obstructing Justice and since then the former president has said that he has no procedural guarantees in the high court.
Debate for court jurisdiction
This case began in 2012 when Uribe sued today’s senator from the leftist Polo Democrático Alternativo (PDA) Iván Cepeda, who at that time was preparing a complaint in Congress against him for alleged links with paramilitarism.
The process against Cepeda changed radically when the CSJ magistrate José Luis Barceló not only filed it away but also opened an investigation into Uribe for alleged manipulation of witnesses.
Cepeda, now a civil party in the process as a victim, is convinced that jurisdiction over the case “continues to be held by the Supreme Court” and one of his arguments is that Uribe “committed several alleged crimes” using members of his Unit of Legislative Work (UTL), as he said Tuesday in statements to Efe.
The senator also assured that many of the events that today have the former president in house arrest are related to debates that he held in Congress in which he linked Uribe with paramilitary groups, arguments that were rejected by Uribe’s defense.
“The falsehoods of Senator Iván Cepeda, trying to link the parliamentary activities of Dr. Uribe or his work team to this investigation have no basis either in the file or in the truth,” added lawyer Granados on Thursday.
According to the legal team of the former president, in the Prosecutor’s Office this process will not have summary reserve so that the whole country will be able to “know it and thus verify who is telling the truth and who is not.”
Polarized country
Uribe’s resignation from the Senate deepened the polarization around his figure. While Cepeda and sectors of the opposition assure that this decision is a strategy to evade justice, more than a hundred Colombians have filed legal appeals to demand the freedom of the former president.
The Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court reported on Wednesday that “for not being part of the process (lack of legitimacy) nor for there to be a violation of political rights,” it denied 177 guardianships (appeal for protection) of individuals against the preventive detention against Uribe.
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