Colombia’s Supreme Court is investigating former President Alvaro Uribe over his alleged involvement in illegal spying and profiling practices carried out by the army, local media reported Tuesday.
The investigation started in mid May after magistrate Cristina Lombana requested to be removed from the investigation she started in December last year.
Colombia’s army spied on court, politicians and journalists: report
Uribe was mentioned as a recipient of intelligence information from illegal operations in an anonymous tip that triggered Lombana to order a raid on two army compounds.
The magistrate, a former army major, was removed from other investigations against Uribe, a former Medellin Cartel associate, after omitting to inform the court she used to work for the former president’s defense attorney Jaime Granados.
Both the magistrate and the former chief of staff of President Ivan Duque, Uribe’s protege, were reportedly among the targets of the rogue military operation.
The former president’s defense attorney said the investigation is “standard procedure.”
The anonymous tip is the only publicly known link between Uribe and the National Army’s illegal practices.
The former president is now suspect in three active Supreme Court investigations, all related to Uribe’s alleged criminal activity after he took seat in the Senate in 2014.
Uribe investigations
- Alleged tampering of witnesses who have testified about his family’s alleged ties to death squads
- Alleged conspiracy with drug traffickers to rig the 2018 elections
- Alleged conspiracy with corrupt army allies to spy on political targets
The ongoing investigations against Uribe have been hampered by illegal spying, alleged death threats against investigators and the alleged tampering of evidence by corrupt prosecution officials.
Paranoid Colombia: even Duque’s former chief of staff target of military spying
Journalists and police investigators looking into the illegal spying and profiling practices have been receiving death threats, according to weekly Semana.
Uribe’s ties to Lombana and Prosecutor General Francisco Barbosa have additionally cast doubt about the judicial officials’ conflict of interest.