Colombia: Former President Uribe assures that the accusation of witness tampering is “a political vendetta”

MADRID, 10 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The former president of Colombia Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010) denounced this Wednesday that the recent accusation by the Prosecutor’s Office for the alleged crimes of witness manipulation and procedural fraud is nothing more than “political revenge.”

“This trial is being brought forward for political presumptions, for political revenge, without evidence that I sought to bribe witnesses,” the former president stated in a video shared on his official profile on social networks.

Likewise, Uribe has expressed his doubts that this “manipulation” against him occurs at a time when the Colombian Government is promoting the so-called ‘peace plan’ to end the confrontation with armed groups.

At this point, the former president has speculated that the plan of Gustavo Petro’s Executive involves justifying the forgiveness of members of armed groups – “as they already did with the FARC” – with “the fiction of forgiving those of us who have not committed crimes.” .

On the other hand, Uribe has also attacked the Attorney General of Colombia, Luz Adriana Camargo, and has linked her directly to the Minister of Defense, Iván Velásquez, with whom he acknowledges not having a good relationship.

The Attorney General’s Office of Colombia announced the day before that it will call former President Uribe to trial for the alleged crimes of witness tampering and procedural fraud, an investigation for which the former president already assumed months ago that he would be tried.

The Public Ministry stressed that it will not request an arrest warrant against the former president who, therefore, will be able to defend himself in freedom in the oral trial for which the date is not yet known, according to information collected by RCN Radio.

Uribe already reported in October of last year that the country’s authorities had refused to archive the process opened against him for the alleged manipulation of witnesses, and he already announced that at some point he would be brought to trial.

The case began in 2012 when Uribe denounced Senator Iván Cepeda, ensuring that he had toured the country’s prisons to present false testimonies against him about the emergence of paramilitarism in the Antioquia region.

However, several versions suggested that the former president’s lawyers were seeking to manipulate witnesses so that they would point to Cepeda, so the latter went from accused to victim, unlike Uribe, the plaintiff, who became the subject of investigation.

After learning of Uribe’s accusation and his subsequent reaction, Senator Cepeda has assured that he and his team of lawyers will go “with complete tranquility, without arrogance, to the corresponding judicial instance,” and has called for a “national agreement around the truth.

For his part, President Petro already defended the day before that his government “does not and will not persecute the opposition,” and that it will “always” provide the judicial system with “respect and protection of its independence.”

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