Former VP slams libel lawsuit

Colombia’s former vice present and current RCN Radio host Francisco Santos on Tuesday rejected the libel lawsuit filed against him by labor unions.

A Bogota judge charged former Vice President Francisco Santos and former presidential advisor Jose Obdulio Gaviria with libel after he and former presidential adviser and El Tiempo columnist Jose Obdulio Gaviria were sued by three trade unions.

According to the unions, some of their members received death threats following Santos’ accusation they were “apologizing for terrorism.”

The former VP told his radio station that the lawsuit is full of “procedural aberrations,” that prosecutors made numerous errors in the process, and that the judge who charged him staged a “media show” around the trial.

The International Observatory for Lawyers, a body set up to defend lawyers under threat, was present at the hearing Tuesday and will watch over the lawsuit as the lawyers for the plaintiffs have been the targets of threats and harassment.

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