Former President Alvaro Uribe met Colombia’s Prosecutor General on Thursday to ask him and his deputy to step aside and let the Inspector General take the lead in investigating allegations of drug money funding President Santos’ 2010 campaign.
| “I came to the Prosecutor General and due to lack of guarantees for a fair investigation, I did not swear and did not disclose the evidence I have.” |
Ex-President Alvaro Uribe was only in the Prosecutor General’s building for a few minutes, according to local media and Uribe did not offer up evidence or a witness to back up the allegations he had made against current President.
“I came to the Prosecutor General and due to lack of guarantees for a fair investigation, I did not swear and did not disclose the evidence I have,” said Uribe in a quote in Colombia’s El Tiempo newspaper.
During the meeting he supposedly handed over a document appealing for the Prosecutor General to recuse himself, that is, remove himself from participation in the case due to a potential conflict or prejudice.
MORE: Uribe refuses to provide evidence of Santos’ drug money allegations
According to news-magazine Semana, the Prosecutor General Eduardo Montealegre gave three reasons he declined Uribe’s request:
1. The person who makes decisions on recusals, that is, the Prosecutor General, can’t recuse himself.
2. “Uribe Velez lacks the legitimacy to submit such a request.”
3. The prosecutor general does not personally conduct the investigation in it’s own office.
The meeting is part of an ongoing scandal involving Uribe’s accusation that President Santos received around $2 million of drug money in his 2010 presidential campaign. Last week, Uribe accused Santos of receiving campaign money from his former political strategist, Juan Jose Rendon. Rendon allegedly received $12 million from drug lords.
MORE: Uribe called to testify under oath over accusation Santos received drug money
The former president was called by the prosecutor general’s office to provide the evidence and surrender his witness but Uribe did not appear at the first meeting on Monday, and has since then refused to disclose his evidence in the following two meetings.
Uribe wants to disclose the evidence first to the Inspector General so that he can investigate the accusations. Inspector General Alejandro Ordoñez is a political ally of former president and they have a meeting pending for June 4.
Sources
- Uribe no entregó pruebas a Fiscalia y pidio adelantar cita con Ordóñez (El Tiempo)
- “Por falta de garantías no juré y guardé silencio” (La Semana)
