A Bogota judge announced on Tuesday that she will decide on whether to absolve or declare Colombia’s former President Alvaro Uribe guilty of fraud and bribery on July 28.
Judge Sandra Liliana Herrera made the announcement after hearing Uribe’s closing statement in which he asked to be absolved of the charges leveled against him.
According to the prosecution and his alleged victims, the former president led a criminal conspiracy that sought to obstruct investigations into his family’s alleged ties to paramilitary groups by bribing witnesses into providing false testimonies.
One witness of Uribe’s alleged bribery practices was assassinated shortly after the Supreme Court opened an investigation into the former president’s alleged witness tampering practices in 2018.
At the same time, Uribe and some of his closest associates allegedly recruited at least 19 witnesses to provide false testimonies to thwart the Supreme Court investigation and smear his victims.
The prosecution’s case was built almost exclusively on evidence obtained by the Supreme Court, which ordered the detention of Uribe in August 2020.
In an attempt to evade a trial before the Supreme Court, the former president resigned from the Senate, effectively renouncing his congressional immunity.
As a consequence, the case was transferred to the prosecution, which was controlled by “Uribista” Prosecutor General Francisco Barbosa at the time.
Barbosa’s underlings were able to delay court proceedings until last year when Prosecutor General Luz Adriana Camargo took office.
Camargo appointed a new prosecutor, Marlene Orjuela, who formally called Uribe to court.
The trial exposed evidence of the former president’s alleged witness tampering practices and of his family’s alleged role in the creation and promotion of paramilitary death squads in Antioquia province between 1992 and 1997.
While Uribe was governor of Antioquia, his native province became overwhelmed by paramilitary death squads that killed thousands of people, who were accused of being subversives or guerrilla supporters.
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