Prosecutor Marlene Orjuela asked the court to sentence Colombia’s former President Alvaro Uribe to nine years in prison on Monday.
Additionally, the prosecutor asked judge Sandra Heredia to fine Uribe for $400,000 for bribing witnesses in order to fabricate charges against Senator Ivan Cepeda and others involved in investigating the Uribe Clan’s ties to paramilitary groups.
In a historic ruling, Heredia found the former president guilty of bribing witnesses in order to press fraudulent charges against Cepeda and other victims on Monday.
The minimum prison sentence for both these crimes is six years.
The judge summoned Uribe and his victims in court on Friday, when Herrera is expected to announce her verdict and order the former president’s arrest.
Because of his position, Uribe will not be sent to an ordinary prison, but be allowed to serve his sentence in an adapted military compound or one of his family’s estates.
In a response to Monday’s ruling, Uribe’s far-right political party, the Democratic Center, said that the defense attorneys of the former president and convicted fraudster will appeal the decision before the Bogota Superior Tribunal.
“We will continue to act with institutional respect, judicial strength and full confidence that the truth and former President Uribe’s innocence will prevail,” the CD said in a press statement.
If the Bogota Superior Tribunal confirms Herrera’s ruling, Uribe and his attorneys will be able to file a final appeal before the Supreme Court’s cassations chamber.
Monday’s sentence severely limits Uribe’s ability to defend himself in the face of criminal investigations into his family’s alleged ties to paramilitary groups and their alleged responsibility in multiple massacres and the assassination of a human rights defender.
Previous investigations into the leaders of the Uribe Clan were dropped in the late 1990’s amid an extremely violent assault on Colombia’s judicial system that sought to prevent investigations into paramilitary groups and their associates in business and politics.
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