A Bogota judge sentenced Diego Cadena, one of former President Alvaro Uribe’s fixers, to seven years in prison and a $136 thousand (COP533 million) fine for bribing witnesses.
The self-proclaimed “gangstattorney” will be allowed to serve his sentence at home, the judge who convicted him in August ruled on Tuesday.
Uribe was sentenced to 12 years in prison in August after a different judge ruled that the former president led a criminal conspiracy that sought to bribe witnesses to conceal his alleged ties to a paramilitary group.
Colombia’s former President Alvaro Uribe sentenced to 12 years house arrest
Cadena was the one who bribed the imprisoned witnesses and obtained their written testimonies in response to a 2018 Supreme Court ruling that ordered to investigate Uribe on witness tampering charges.
In the case of Juan Guillermo Monsalve, who has claimed that the former president and his brother Santiago helped create the Bloque Metro paramilitary group, Cadena offered free legal services for a retraction.
Monsalve recorded this conversation and sent the recording to the Supreme Court’s investigating magistrate.
This recording and hours of wiretaps revealed that Uribe employed multiple people, including Cadena and the now-chairman of the National Electoral Council, Alvaro Hernan Prada, to obtain false testimonies throughout 2018.
Uribe’s main fixer convicted for bribing witness in case against Colombia’s former president
The former president’s criminal conspiracy fell through completely when one of the bribed witnesses admitted to receiving money for recruiting other witnesses who were willing to lie for Uribe.
The scandal and ongoing investigations into the Uribe Clan’s ties to paramilitary organization AUC ended the former president’s formal participation in politics.
Uribe has continued to lead his far-right Democratic Center party after his defense attorneys appealed the former president’s fraud and bribery conviction and an appeals court suspended the sentence for the duration of the appeals process.
Cadena’s defense attorney also announced he would appeal the ganstattorney’s conviction.
