The investigation into Colombia’s former President Alvaro Uribe’s alleged role in the illegal wiretapping of government opponents is being stalled and may be assumed by the International Criminal Court (ICC) “at any time,” said one of the former investigators Monday.
In an interview with Colombian press agency Colprensa, Representative Alfredo Bocanegra said that the investigation carried out by a committee of the House’s Accusation Commission since May 2010 “is not advancing.”
According to the Conservative Party representative, “there is a dark shadow passing over the calendar pages so that time passes and continues to pass.”
Bocanegra, who stepped down from the committee after being accused of bias by Uribe, told Colprensa that “no one can escape the warrant” and that “at any time the International Criminal Court finds out that nothing is going to happen here.”
According to the ICC’s statutes, the court can assume a criminal investigation into crimes against humanity of which Uribe is accused under the condition that there “has been an unjustified delay in the proceedings which in the circumstances is inconsistent with an intent to bring the person concerned to justice.”
Since the beginning of the trial, five representatives of the three-person investigation committee have resigned. The committee now only consists of two lawmakers, Yair Acuña and Carlos Edgar Osorio, as no other member of the House’s Accusations Commissions wants to take part in the investigation committee.
Uribe is accused of having ordered the illegal wiretapping of opposition politicians, supreme court magistrates, journalists and human rights groups. Uribe’s direct subordinates, his former chief of staff and his former intelligence chief, have been barred from holding public office and are respectively in jail and in Panama awaiting trial.
The former president has always denied knowledge of the illegal wiretapping and has claimed he and his political allies are victim of political persecution.