Colombian coalition party De la U Wednesday proposed a law that would disallow the country’s Supreme Court to try Congressmen who resigned to avoid prosecution by the country’s highest court.
Instead, the Uribistas want a special tribunal to prosecute Congressmen who are suspected of ties to paramilitary death squads or other crimes.
The Supreme Court recently ruled it had the jurispudence to try Congressmen, also after they resigned. Before this, Congressmen could avoid prosecution by the high court and be tried by lower courts if they resigned before being indicted.
Coalition party De la U now wants this reversed because it claims there are “clashes of powers over prosecution between Congress and the high courts,” Partido de la U leader Luis Carlos Restrepo said.
“We consider it inappropriate that these two bodies and these two powers judge the other because one way or the other, the prosecution can end up paralyzed,” Restrepo added.
Fifteen congressmen, all suspected of paramilitary ties, avoided prosecution by the high court by resigning from Congress. The coalition accuses the Supreme Court of bias and that it is persecuting supporters of President Alvaro Uribe.