Colombian prosecutors on Friday formally charged former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe with bribing witnesses and fraud.
It would be the country’s first criminal trial against a former president.
Uribe is accused of “offering cash or other benefits to selected witnesses of criminal acts,” so that they would not tell the truth in a case that links him to paramilitary groups, a document presented by prosecutor Gilberto Villarreal said.
Photo: AP
The bribery and fraud charges arise from an investigation into Uribe’s alleged ties to right-wing politicians.
Uribe, 71, who was president from 2002 to 2010 and is still considered one of Colombia’s most influential right-wing figures, says he is not guilty and has sought to have the case dropped.
“I never sought to look for witnesses. I wanted to defend my reputation,” Uribe said during Friday’s virtual hearing.
Judge Sandra Heredia rejected his request to have the case scrapped, and Uribe faces a prison term of up to 12 years.
He said on Friday he felt hurt for being the first former president to have to defend himself in court.
Uribe also claimed to be the victim of a plot hatched by judges and “opponents” who used “illegal [telephone] tapping” to obtain evidence against him.
The matter dates to 2012, when Uribe, then a senator, filed a complaint against Colombian Senator Ivan Cepeda, whom he accused of hatching a plot to falsely link him to paramilitary groups.
However, the Supreme Court decided against investigating Cepeda, instead turning its sights on Uribe.
The investigation against Uribe began in 2018 and has had numerous twists and turns, with several attorneys general seeking to close the case.
It has gained new impetus under Colombian Attorney General Luz Camargo, who took over in March and was chosen by Colombian President Gustavo Petro — historically a foe of Uribe.
Uribe, still a prominent voice on Colombia’s right, was known for being tough on the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrillas and strongly opposed the historic 2016 peace accord that saw the Marxist rebels disarm.
Last month, he said that the trial was motivated by “political persecution, personal animosity, political vengeance, without evidence.”
The trial is set to resume on July 10.
Uribe is also being investigated in several other cases.
He testified before prosecutors in November last year in a preliminary probe into a paramilitary massacre in 1997 when he was governor of the Antioquia department.
A complaint has also been filed against him in Argentina, where universal jurisdiction allows for the prosecution of crimes committed anywhere in the world.
That complaint stems from Uribe’s alleged involvement in the more than 6,000 executions and forced disappearances of civilians by the military during his government’s crackdown on guerrillas between 2002 and 2008.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS