The Colombian congressional commission investigating former President Alvaro Uribe for his alleged role in the illegal wiretapping of government opponents must be carried out publicly, a Bogota court ruled.
Uribe is being investigated by the Investigations and Accusations Commission, which consists only of supporters of the former president. One of the three investigating congressmen pulled out of the commission in December on grounds he is not impartial because of his personal friendship with Uribe.
The Bogota Superior Criminal Court agreed with plaintiff Piedad Cordoba, a former senator who was illegally spied on by state intelligence agency DAS and later banned from holding a government office for having ties to the FARC, that the “Investigation and Accusation Commission of the House of Representatives is constitutionally and legally obliged to publicy carry out the investigations, allowing general access to the case and making its deliberations in the face of the nation,” an NGO said Thursday.
Uribe is being investigated by the commission for his alleged role in the wiretapping of supreme court judges, human rights organizations, politicians and journalists. Several of the former president’s closest aides and directors of state intelligence agency DAS are implicated in the scandal and being investigated by the Prosecutor General’s Office.