How to keep Venezuela’s diaspora in Colombia safe?
Colombia’s new government proposes tax reform to finance...
Peace talks with Colombia’s ELN guerrillas ‘about to...
Colombia’s largest paramilitary group announces unilateral ceasefire
The men and women who will govern Colombia...
Gustavo Petro sworn in as Colombia’s new president
Colombia to seek decriminalization of drugs despite US...
Colombia’s failing state | Part 6: indigenous under...
How serious is Colombia’s president-elect about fighting corruption?
How violent Colombia became while Duque was in...
  • About
  • Support
  • Newsletter
  • Contact
Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion
News

Judge criticized by Uribe gets death threats

by Camilla Pease-Watkin June 8, 2010

colombia, thear, alvaro uribe

A Colombian Supreme Court magistrate told RCN Radio Monday that Judge Jenny Jimenez received threatening phone calls after President Alvaro Uribe criticized her decision to arrest Mario Aranguren, former director of the government’s Financial Information and Analysis Unit (UIAF).

According to Hernando Torres, a magistrate from the Supreme Court’s Superior Council of Judicature, Jimenez has been given special police protection after she reported fears for her safety given Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s public statements on the decision to detain Aranguren on charges relating to government security agency DAS’s illegal wiretapping.

Uribe had expressed outrage at the “unjust” arrest of the former government official, saying that the decision created a “lack of confidence” in the country’s justice system. The president went on to accuse an unnamed “higher body” of pressuring a judge to order the arrest.

The president of the Supreme Court, Jaime Arrubla, responded by calling on Uribe to substantiate his allegations.

“To give an order to a judge is a crime,” Arrubla said. “In Colombia, judges are independent, no one can influence their decisions. Because of that, what the president said cannot remain out in the open like that, it delegitimizes the institution.”

Another Supreme Court judge, Julio Cesar Valencia, rejected Uribe’s allegation that the judges were “pressured” to arrest Aranguren, and said that the president’s comments create an atmosphere of doubt in the judicial branch’s decisions, puts judges’ lives at risk.

Uribe has in the past been accused of putting opponent’s lives at risk by directing harsh criticism at them. A Reporters Without Borders report released May said “President Uribe does not like being criticised and lets the media know it. Journalists who do not find favour with the president are often pilloried by him as ‘accomplices of terrorism’ … regardless of the fact that these public comments put them in danger.”

Alvaro UribeDASDAS wiretap scandalgovernmentjenny jimenezjudgemagistrateMario ArangurenSupreme Court

Trending

  • Colombia to seek decriminalization of drugs despite US objections

  • Medellin’s secret history of violence against women and girls

  • How serious is Colombia’s president-elect about fighting corruption?

Related articles

  • Colombia’s war crimes tribunal inquiring about Uribe’s alleged paramilitary ties

  • Colombia’s far-right trying to postpone presidential elections

  • Court orders Colombia’s prosecution to try Uribe on fraud and bribery charges

  • RSS

@2008-2019 - Colombia Reports. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by Digitale Zaken and Parrolabs


Back To Top