Former President Alvaro Uribe will testify in the investigation into a smear campaign and bribery scandal involving top paramilitary chiefs and Uribe’s relatives, various Colombian media reported.
Uribe is currently out of the country, so his testimony will be given next week.
Sergio Gonzalez, the lawyer of ex-paramilitary leader Jose Orlando Moncada, alias “Tasmania,” is being investigated for the defamation of Supreme Court Judge Ivan Velasquez. According to Tasmania’s accusations, Gonzalez, on behalf of Uribe’s brother and cousin, asked him to testify that Velasquez bribed Tasmania to implicate Uribe in a parapolitics scandal.
Santiago Uribe, the brother of former President Uribe, has denied any involvement in the case. He said, “[his cousin, Mario Uribe] told me that he was with Tasmania’s lawyer and that [the lawyer] was asked to say that Alvaro Uribe and Mario Uribe were involved with paramilitary groups. And that they were also involved with the attack of alias ‘Rene'”.