When Uribe resigned from the Senate at the end of August, he lost his jurisdiction as a congressman and the case went from the Supreme Court of Justice to the Prosecutor’s Office.
The Constitutional Court of Colombia rejected this Wednesday a protection action (appeal for protection) with which former President Álvaro Uribe sought to have the accusation withdrawn for a case that is being followed for alleged manipulation of witnesses and procedural fraud.
With a 5-4 vote against, the high court denied the appeal filed last February by Uribe’s lawyers, president of Colombia between 2002 and 2010, with which they alleged that the ex-president’s right to due process and defense had been violated.
This is because his lawyer, Jaime Granados, considered that the investigation in the old system and the imputation of charges in the new accusatory criminal system cannot be equated.
“President Alvaro Uribe Velez Way” is located on west 16th avenue, in the section between 44th and 60th streets.
When Uribe resigned from the Senate at the end of August, he lost his jurisdiction as a congressman and the case passed from the Supreme Court of Justice to the Prosecutor’s Office.
Uribe’s defense maintains that Law 600 of 2000, based on a mixed system of an inquisitive nature in which the person conducting the process is judge and party, is not the one indicated for this case because that is what Law 906 of 2004 of the system is for. accusatory criminal.
Along these lines, Judge Alejandro Linares explained that to make the decision, the Court “started from the basis that this is a regulatory vacuum in which the Court had to make use of, resort to principles and rules of procedural law to fill that void that occurs due to the difficulty of adapting a situation under Law 600 of 2020 to Law 906 of 2004 ″.
Álvaro Uribe proposes general amnesty in Colombia
“The Court pointed out that when there is a change in the procedural system from Law 600 to Law 906 or vice versa (…) due to resignation or acquisition of constitutional jurisdiction, when, for example, a citizen is elected as a congressman, during the investigation stage it will remain valid. everything acted as long as it is based on the first phase there is a functional equivalence between the investigation and the imputation “, he added.
This is the case against Uribe
The process began in February 2012 when Uribe sued left-wing senator Iván Cepeda for alleged witness tampering, who at that time was preparing a complaint in Congress against him for alleged links with paramilitarism.
That lawsuit ended up turning against Uribe when the magistrate José Luis Barceló not only shelved it but also decided to open an investigation into the former president for alleged manipulation of witnesses.
The delegate prosecutor in the case, Gabriel Jaimes, asked on March 5 not to investigate Uribe, leader of the ruling Centro Democrático party, considering that “several of the behaviors for which the former congressman was legally linked do not have the character of a crime and others that are, cannot be attributed to him as an author or participant ”.
Colombian justice began a preclusion hearing in the case against former President Álvaro Uribe
If the judge of the case accepts the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, the victims could appeal that decision and the case would go to the Superior Court of Bogotá.
And if, on the contrary, the judge denies the request for preclusion, the Prosecutor’s Office would have to decide whether to present an accusation with what he has or whether to reformulate his request for preclusion with more arguments.
In any case, if the judge denies the preclusion, the Prosecutor’s Office and Uribe’s defense could also appeal that decision, with which the case would also go to the Superior Court of Bogotá. (I)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
