Colombian columnist and political analyst Claudia Lopez on Thursday won a lawsuit filed against her by former President Ernesto Samper, who accused her of slander.
The former president sued the journalist last month for a 2006 column in which she implied Samper was involved in the murder of a key witness in the so-called “8,000 process” against the former president, who was investigated for allegedly receiving money from the Cali cartel in the 1994 presidential campaign.
According to a Bogota court, Lopez was not breaking the law when she wrote that then-President Alvaro Uribe “does not see in [Samper] a politician capable of selling himself to the mafia to enter the presidency (something we all know, but that the bribed justice in Congress failed to judge), of corrupting the institutions to impose [Horacio] Serpa as his successor (as we all experienced, but were able to avoid), asked help to not extradite the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers (as he personally reported to Uribe) and God knows if he also interceded in plans to eliminate those who could be key pieces in the unravelling of his adventures, like [key-witness] “the little blonde”and the former driver of Serpa, who did not die of the flu but were gunned down when they were going to tell the Prosecutor General’s Office what they knew (something that only the killers can corroborate if they didn’t kill them too.)”
Samper demanded $27,000 in damages over the column.