A Colombian political analyst announced Monday that he will sue ex-President Alvaro Uribe for slander.
Leon Valencia, of the Fundacion Nuevo Arco Iris, a Colombian think tank, announced that he will file a libel suit against Uribe for comments made by the former president in recent months accusing Valencia of criminal misdeeds.
“I’ve endured many insults from him in my life, for the things I’ve done in my research into parapolitics and national life, ” said Valencia, “He has said a lot, but for about a month and a half he has exceeded all limits accusing me of war crimes and crimes against humanity for which I have no criminal investigations.”
Colombia’s prosecutor general has said that the suit against Uribe will be accepted and a hearing will begin August 9.
Valencia said that the bad blood between him and Uribe began when he published an article examining the public life of Uribe’s two sons Tomas and Jeronimo, who Valencia accused of engaging in illegal activity and abusing their positions as the president’s children. Tomas has been investigated by the prosecutor general for bribing congressmen to ensure his father’s election and has been accused of hiding a conflict of interest in a construction scandal.
Other journalists have accused the Uribe children of profiting from their father’s position.