Bogota. The long-awaited and extremely publicized trial in opposition to former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe (2002-210), the primary former president within the nation’s historical past to be prosecuted in courtroom, started right this moment.
Sandra Heredia, decide 44 of the circuit of this capital, declared the beginning of the trial at 8:30 this morning, within the midst of a fantastic media show and excessive consideration from Colombian society, which adopted all through the day the shows of the prosecution and protection of the previous president, accused of tampering with witnesses and committing procedural fraud.
At the start of the listening to, the prosecutor accountable for the case, Gilberto Villarreal, managed to additionally embody the crime of bribing witnesses, whereas Uribe’s protection, led by the controversial lawyer Jaime Granados, requested in useless that the annulment be declared. of every part that has been accomplished, alleging that there was a violation of due course of and the suitable to protection.
Uribe, who based on authorized consultants was a sufferer of his personal invention, by attempting to open a legal investigation in opposition to Senator Iván Cepeda for, supposedly, inducing some residents disadvantaged of liberty to testify in opposition to the previous president, ended up prosecuted for this similar crime, in what many jurists describe because the “boomerang impact.”
A couple of hours earlier than the trial started, Cepeda himself mentioned that this episode must be trigger for celebration, since “it means progress within the democratization of justice and Colombian society,” stressing that it was the primary time {that a} former president of The Republic should seem earlier than the courts as an accused.
The assertion by the senator of the Historic Pact, the federal government coalition that led Gustavo Petro to the presidency in 2022, coincided with an in depth assertion by the previous head of state earlier than a swarm of media microphones and cameras.
From considered one of his farms, within the metropolis of Rionegro, Uribe complained that “evidently the ensures don’t apply to me,” after which harshly criticized all of the magistrates who needed to do with the investigations which have introduced him earlier than the courts. judicial courts.
In accordance with the previous president, justice officers leaked unconnected items to some media retailers, producing the matrix of his guilt earlier than going to trial. “They believed a prisoner sentenced to 40 years in jail,” mentioned Uribe, referring to Juan Guillermo Monsalve, the primary witness within the case.
In an lively tone, however arguing like a sufferer, the previous president acknowledged that his political antagonists ended up turning into judicial executioners and – with out mentioning names – assured that lots of them had been accomplices and allies of the extinct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
“I’ve by no means deceived justice and my public life doesn’t know lies,” Uribe mentioned a number of hours earlier than the beginning of the trial in opposition to him.
Specialist legal professionals contemplate that the judicial course of in opposition to Uribe has been meticulous and has an plentiful arsenal of proof, primarily based primarily on testimonies.
If discovered responsible, the previous president might be sentenced to as much as twelve years in jail, a penalty contemplated by the codes for the crimes of procedural fraud and bribery of witnesses.
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– 2024-05-20 15:11:51
