A Colombian ex-deputy appealed the ruling that found former congresswoman Yidis Medina guilty on charges of kidnapping.
According to local media, ex-deputy Sigifredo Lopez admitted that Medina was guilty of bribery and accepting bribes that allowed the 2006 re-election run of former President Alvaro Uribe, but she was innocent in regards to kidnapping allegations.
“Yidis is responsible for receiving bribes, confessed [to] it and [is paying] for it, but she is not responsible and absolutely innocent of kidnapping,” said Lopez.
Medina’s guilty verdict condemned her to 32 years in prison on charges of bribery and of coordinating the kidnapping of three government officials in 2000.
Yet according to Lopez, Medina is the target of a conspiracy in retaliation to her confessions about participating in a multi-member bribery scandal known as “Yidispolitica.”
The scandal originated in 2004 when it Medina accepted bribes to vote for a constitutional amendment which would allow the former head of state to run for a second term.