Human Rights Watch (HRW) is concerned about a conflict between the Colombian government and judiciary and has offered “international support” to the Supreme Court, Efe reports.
The NGO expressed its concern at a closed-door meeting at the headquarters of the Supreme Court in Bogota, which took place on Tuesday.
The directors of HRW were received by Sigifredo Espinosa Perez, the interim-president of the Supreme Court.
In a press statement released on Wednesday, the Supreme Court announced that “[HRW] said that the international community will continue supporting Colombia and support the court, for its performance in defence of human rights.”
The meeting also addressed “issues of discrediting remarks, harrasment and verbal attacks” directed towards the judges of the Supreme Court.
The outgoing president clashed with the Supreme Court over the arrest order for Mario Aranguren, former director of the government’s Financial Information and Analysis Unit, who is accused of involvement in the illegal wiretapping undertaken by the country’s security agency DAS. Uribe suggested that the judge who issued the warrant had been pressured, and the court responded by saying the president’s comments threatened judicial independence.
Uribe was accused in the media of seeking to declare a state of exception in order to select a new prosecutor general, which is the responsibility of the Supreme Court but has been repeatedly delayed as the magistrates have failed to reach a consensus.
