The attorney of Colombia’s former President Alvaro Uribe asked the Supreme Court on Sunday to transfer the investigations into his client’s alleged complicity in three massacres to the prosecution.
According to attorney Jaime Granados, the court does not have the authority to investigate Uribe as the far-right politician resigned from the senate earlier this month.
Chances the court grant this request are virtually nil as the massacres of El Aro, La Granja and San Roque took place in Antioquia when Uribe was governor of this province.
Was Uribe complicit in a 1997 paramilitary massacre?
The Supreme Court has the authority to investigate suspects if the crimes they allegedly committed took place when they enjoyed judicial privileges as, for example, governor or senator.
In a press statement, Granados said he disagreed, claiming that “this action, in our opinion, lacks legal support since the Special Investigation Chamber lost competence to continue with this investigation on August 18, date in which the Senate” accepted Uribe’s resignation.
The Supreme Court calling Uribe to testify over the massacres does not necessarily mean that the court will continue to investigate the former president’s alleged fraud and bribery practices.
Colombia’s Supreme Court places Uribe under house arrest for witness tampering
This trial, and particularly the court placing Uribe under house arrest, triggered the former president to resign in the hope the court would transfer the investigation to the notoriously politicized prosecution.
Granados requested the Supreme Court transfer this investigation to the prosecution last week, accusing the country’s highest court of violating Uribe’s rights.
The Supreme Court rejected this claim while debating on whether to continue investigating the former president or transfer the investigation to the prosecution as requested by Granados.
Uribe’s house arrest already meant the political death of Colombia’s most powerful politician and former Medellin Cartel associate of the past decades.
The investigation into the former president’s alleged complicity in paramilitary massacres that have been deemed crimes against humanity further worsened the situation for Uribe, who has gone from being an alleged criminal to being an alleged war criminal in just two weeks.