Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Monday promised to make sure that
communication of magistrates of the country’s high courts would never
illegally be intercepted again. Uribe met with the magistrates now his intelligence service DAS is suspected of illegally wiretapping judges, journalists and political opponents.
According to Hernando Torres, president of the Supreme Judicial Council, Uribe had expressed his concern about the wiretap scandal and had told the magistrates the situation was serious.
In the three-and-a-half hour conversation the President promised to protect the “physical and judicial security and privacy”of the judges, Torres said.
Supreme Court president Augusto Ibañez said the reunion had been “productive” and that all those present had been able to express their concerns to the President.
Uribe promised to talk to each high court separately to talk about obstacles that have occurred between the judicial bodies and the Presidency over the past year.
The Presidency clashed a number of times with the high courts a number of times the past year, sollowing the investigation of coalition politicians with alleged ties to paramilitary death squads.
The government denies having ordered any wiretaps, but its intelligence service did illegally intercept phonecalls and e-mails of magistrates involved in the investigation of allegedly ‘dirty’ coalition congressmen.