Colombia Justice Minister Eduardo Montealegre has resigned from his position to focus on bringing former President Alvaro Uribe to justice.
In his resignation letter, the justice minister told President Gustavo Petro that he cannot remain silent about “war criminal” Uribe’s acquittal and will pursue before the Supreme Court and international tribunals.
Montealegre said that he needed “total freedom to continue the fight of a criminal who knows no bounds,” and whose fraud and bribery conviction was overturned by an appeals court earlier this month.
One sole reason motivates my departure: the deep indignation at the malfeasance committed by the Bogota Tribunal in absolving a war criminal, a corrupt man, Alvaro Uribe Velez… As a victim of Uribe, I must resume the exercise of my rights to prevent his crimes remain in impunity. This implies that, as mu duty, resort to international tribunals.
Eduardo Montealegre
The justice minister stated that it is “predictable” that the Supreme Court would acquit Uribe, a politician who is “connected to drug trafficking,” and who “planted terror and violence in Colombia,” according to Montealegre.
The minister resigned after the appeals court of Colombia’s capital, Bogota, overturned Uribe’s fraud and bribery conviction after more than seven years in court.
The appeals court absolved the former president of all charges and revoked the 12-year prison sentence imposed on Uribe by a lower court.
Senator Ivan Cepeda, Uribe’s main alleged victim and a presidential candidate, also announced that he will formally file an appeal before the Supreme Court’s Cassations Chamber.
Montealegre and Cepeda have one week to do this after which they have another month to sustain their cassation request. The Supreme court has five years to look into matters brought before its cassation chamber if agreeing to this extraordinary appeal.
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