The slander trial for a lawsuit brought by trade unionists against former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s vice president and presidential adviser has been postponed until July, local media reported Tuesday.
Former Vice President Francisco Santos Calderon and former presidential adviser Jose Obdulio Gaviria are being sued for libel, after accusing three trade union leaders of terrorism back in August 2007. The preparatory hearing for the two former government officials will be postponed until July 7 due to the lack of an available court room.
The court case centers around the presence of the labor leaders at an international conference titled
“The Problems of the Latin American Revolution,” when the ex-vice president apparently labelled their attendance a “defense of terrorism” and “support to the armed conflict,” while the former presidential adviser said that it fell within the “international guild of terrorism.”
A day after these events took place, one of the union leaders received death threats via email.
The lawsuit was filed in September 2010. A month later, it was reported that the International Observatory for Lawyers would watch over the development of the case, as case lawyers had been targets of various threats and harassment.
Along with the slander charges, Obdulio Gaviria has also been accused by a number of former government officials, including a former ex-DAS director, of involvement in the illegal wiretapping scandal that occurred under the Uribe administration.