Colombia’s Supreme Court said Monday that it will continue investigating far-right former President Alvaro Uribe for allegedly conspiring with a drug trafficking organization to rig the 2018 elections.
The court said that it would not send the so-called “Ñeñepolitica” probe to the prosecution despite Uribe’s resignation from the Senate and renunciation of his congressional privilege in August.
Wiretapping of drug trafficker reveals vote-buying for Duque on Uribe’s orders
The election rigging plot will remain in the Supreme Court because of the involvement of Uribe’s senatorial aides, the Supreme Court said on Twitter.
The court did transfer investigations into the former president’s alleged witness tampering practices and ties to paramilitary groups to the prosecution because it found connection between these alleged crimes and Uribe’s former position as Senator.
The decision is a setback for the former president and former Medellin Cartel associate who hoped his resignation would move all criminal cases against him to the prosecution where Uribe has more clout.
The former president will additionally remain under house arrest until the Supreme Court takes a decision about which criminal code applies in the witness tampering investigation.
Meanwhile, the court will proceed with the election fraud investigation that was kicked off early this year after independent media revealed evidence of ties between the ruling Democratic Center party and the drug trafficking organization of Marquitos Figueroa.
The scandal triggered investigations not just into Uribe, but also his party and President Ivan Duque who allegedly also plotted with money launderer Jose Guillermo Hernandez to defeat his opponent, Senator Gustavo Petro, in the heated 2018 elections.
The slew of criminal investigations have severely discredited the former president and his party and put the legitimacy of Duque’s election as president into question.
Despite decades of mounting evidence of Uribe’s ties to organized crime, the former president was able to successfully evade justice until his return to the senate in 2014 made his alleged criminal activity fall under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.