The Bogota appeals court sentenced attorneys Diego Cadena and Juan José Salazar to more than seven years house arrest for trying to bribe witnesses for Colombia’s former president Alvaro Uribe, their client.
The appeals court ruled that Cadena, a.k.a. “the Gangsattorney,” did not jut bribe witnesses, but also committed fraud to shield Uribe and his brother Santiago, from allegations they helped create the “Bloque Metro” paramilitary group in the 1990’s.
Because of the added fraud sentence, the court increased Cadena’s sentence from seven years to eight years and eight months of house arrest.
The court also revoked the lower court’s decision to absolve Salazar, and sentenced him to seven years of house arrest.
Both attorneys were additionally ordered to pay hefty fines for their role in the criminal conspiracy to unlink the Uribe family from the paramilitary terror in their native Antioquia province.
The two lawyers bribed witnesses in 2018 when the Supreme Court was investigating Uribe’s alleged attempts to bribe former members of the Bloque Metro and the paramilitary organization AUC.
A Bogota court found Uribe guilty as the mastermind behind the bribery, but this sentence was controversially revoked by the appeals court last year.
The case revived accusations made against the Uribe brothers by former paramilitaries who witnessed the creation of the Bloque Metro between 1996 and 1998.
In the aftermath of the Uribe case, Santiago was sentenced to 27 years in prison for creating and leading a death squad called “The 12 Apostles” in the years before the creation of the Bloque Metro.
The 12 Apostles and the Bloque Metro were key paramilitary groups in the process that led to the creation of the AUC in 1997 and are responsible for the killing of thousands of people in Antioquia.
The Prosecutor General’s Office continues to investigate Uribe’s alleged role in massacres and assassinations committed by the AUC during its formation.
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