Colombia’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered an investigation into former President Alvaro Uribe over alleged irregularities in a 2016 vote on peace with FARC guerrilla.
Two human rights lawyers sued Uribe and other promoters of the campaign to sink the peace deal. According to the complaints, the campaign violated electoral law by intentionally misinforming the public.
The campaign manager of the opponents, Juan Carlos Velez, was indicted for electoral fraud last year already after he told local media that the campaign strategy was to create discontent, rather than to inform.
Velez told newspaper La Republica that sought “the outrage of voters”, and avoided to explain the agreements that seek to end more than half a century of armed conflict.
Uribe strongly dismissed Velez claims, who was forced to leave the party over the scandal.
Following the publication of an interview in the newspaper La Republica with Dr. Juan Carlos Velez, the Prosecutor General Office received two complaints today. The office ordered the opening of the corresponding investigation with ends of establishing whether Mr. Velez Uribe’s statements contribute to a punishable conduct in light of the National Legislation.
Statement Office of the Attorney General
Human rights lawyers Jorge Eliecer Molano and Elmer Montaña filed charges against Uribe’s alleged intent to manipulate and deceive the Colombian public.
The two attorneys asked the high court to order the prosecution of verifying whether Uribe and others in the “No” movement “took part of the deceitful campaign.”
Presidential candidate Ivan Duque of Uribe’s Democratic Center party was one of the first to be called to trial.
The referendum forced the government to renegotiate the terms of the peace deal and present a new deal to Congress months after its planned schedule.
Uribe, whose administrations have been disgraced by mass human rights violations, has been one of the most vociferous opponent of the peace process.