The latest member of the Congressional commission investigating former President Alvaro Uribe‘s alleged involvement in the illegal wiretapping of government opponents said Saturday he has asked international judicial bodies to monitor the case.
In an interview with newspaper El Espectador, Representative Yahir Acuña, said that he had asked both the International Criminal Court and the Inter-American Court for Human Rights to accompany the process to guarantee transparency in a case that so far has been marked by resigning investigators.
Acuña, the Congressional representative of the Afro-Colombian minority in Colombia, said he will also talk to victims of the wiretaps to make sure their questions are asked to the former President who is expected to be heard on June 16.
Wiretap victim and controversial former Senator Piedad Cordoba has asked the congressional commission to be allowed to interrogate her political opponent, which is not allowed as only the members of the commission are allowed to ask questions to the accused.
Acuña is the third replacement within the three-man commission, his predecessors resigned respectively over a personal friendship with Uribe, accusations against a bias against the ex president and death threats.
Uribe, who is suspected of having ordered the wiretapping of supreme court judges, journalists, human rights workers and opposition politicians, can not be investigated by the courts, but only by Congress, which has a special Accusations Commission to deal with alleged presidential crimes.
The three investigators in the Uribe case are Jose Rodolfo Perez of Apertura Liberal and Heriberto Escobar of PIN, both of highly controversial parties that face accusations of links to drug traffickers, criminals and paramilitaries, and Yahir Acuña, who after being a member of PIN decided to run as representative for the Afro-Colombian party and has known ties to “La Gata,” a businesswoman convicted for her ties to paramilitary groups.
The commission is presided by Hector Javier Vergara (Partido de la U),