International
The Colombian Prosecutor’s Office formally accuses former President Álvaro Uribe of three crimes
The Colombian Prosecutor’s Office accused Álvaro Uribe before a judge this Friday for the crimes of bribery, procedural fraud and bribery in criminal proceedings, so the former president becomes accused in the case of alleged bribery of witnesses and procedural fraud.
It is the first time that the Prosecutor’s Office has filed charges against Uribe (2002-2010), which were accepted by Judge 44 of criminal knowledge of Bogotá, Sandra Liliana Heredia, who ruled that “from this moment (the former president) acquires the status of accused.”
According to the judge’s decision, the process against Uribe begins formally and if guilty the head of the Democratic Center can be sentenced to between 6 and 12 years in prison.
The accusation comes after the togada denied the request for the nullity of the process against the former president by considering it “absolutely inappropriate,” so “its rejection is imposed flatly, a decision against which no appeal is appropriate.”
Likewise, the judge accepted as victims of the case Senator Iván Cepeda and former attorneys general Jorge Perdomo and Eduardo Montealegre, as well as Deyanira Gómez, former wife of paramilitary Juan Guillermo Monsalve, involved in the case.
These two decisions were celebrated by Cepeda’s lawyer, Reinaldo Villalba, who assured that “they are decisions that recognize not only the condition of the victims but the need for the victims to have access to justice and there defend and claim their rights.”
The prosecutor who leads the case, Gilberto Villarreal, accused Uribe as “determinator of the successive homogeneous contest of three bribery crimes in criminal proceedings” because for “the benefit of himself or a third party he gives or promises a utility to a person who witnessed a criminal act to refrain from running to testify or to totally or partially miss the truth.”
He also accused him of “sucessive homogeneous contest of two courts of procedural fraud,” that is, because “by any fraudulent means it misleads a public servant to obtain a sentence, resolution or administrative act contrary to the law.”
Also as a “determinator of the crime of bribery” because he delivered or promised “money or other utility to a witness so that he totally or partially lacks the truth or the street in his testimony.”
This case dates back to 2012 when Uribe, who was a senator, sued Cepeda for alleged manipulation of witnesses, who at that time was preparing a complaint in Congress against him for alleged links with paramilitarism.
Contrary to what was expected by Uribe, the Supreme Court of Justice did not open an investigation against the left-wing congressman and, instead, initiated a trial against Uribe for manipulation of witnesses.
The accusation of bribery has to do with the alleged payment of bribes to Carlos Enrique Vélez and Juan Guillermo Monsalve, who are imprisoned in the prisons of Palmira, and La Picota in Bogotá, respectively.
Monsalve, a former paramilitary, assured that there was a whole strategy to approach him and convince him to testify against Cepeda.
Uribe has been saying for years that it is a case against him that has political motives and that lacks evidence.
Uribe resigned his senator’s seat in August 2020 to stop being assigned and that his case was passed to ordinary justice and then the Prosecutor’s Office decided that there was no evidence to prosecute him judicially.
That is why he requested up to two occasions the preclusion of the case, which was denied both by the courts of first instance presented and by the High Court of Bogotá.
However, prosecutor Villarreal took over the case on January 16 and on April 9 he affirmed that based on the physical evidence and evidence he determined that there were reasons to accuse Uribe, which were the conclusions of the judges when denying the pre-preclusion.
International
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe on Monday requested that the Supreme Court restore his freedom while he appeals the historic 12-year house arrest sentence he received for bribery and procedural fraud.
Uribe, the most prominent figure of Colombia’s right wing, was convicted last week by a lower court for attempting to bribe paramilitary members into denying his ties to the violent anti-guerrilla squads.
Since Friday, the 73-year-old has been under house arrest at his residence in Rionegro, about 30 km from Medellín. The judge justified the measure by citing a risk of flight.
However, Uribe’s defense team rejected that argument and formally petitioned the court to immediately lift the detention order, claiming it lacks legal basis.
Uribe, a dominant force in Colombian politics for decades, is now the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted and placed under arrest, found guilty of witness tampering and obstruction of justice to prevent links to paramilitary groups.
He has repeatedly denounced the trial as politically motivated, blaming pressure from the leftist government currently in power.
His political party, Centro Democrático, has called for nationwide protests on August 7 in support of Uribe, who remains popular for his hardline stance against guerrilla groups.
Uribe has until August 13 to submit his written appeal. The case will then move to the Bogotá High Court, which has until October 16 to uphold, overturn, or dismiss the sentence. If the deadline passes without a decision, the case will be archived.
International
U.S. Embassy staff restricted as gunfire erupts near compound in Port-au-Prince
The poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean is currently engulfed in a deep political crisis and a wave of violence driven by armed groups — a situation that an international security mission led by Kenya is attempting to stabilize.
Due to the worsening security conditions, the U.S. government has suspended all official movements of embassy personnel outside the compound in Port-au-Prince, the U.S. State Department announced Monday in a security alert posted on social media platform X.
“There are intense gunfights in the Tabarre neighborhood, near the U.S. Embassy,” the alert reads, urging the public to avoid the area.
Tabarre is a municipality located near Port-au-Prince International Airport, northeast of the Haitian capital.
According to a July report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 3,141 people were killed in Haitibetween January 1 and June 30 of this year.
International
Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
The Israeli military announced on Sunday that 136 boxes of food aid were airdropped into Gaza by the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Germany, and Belgium.
“In recent hours, six countries conducted air drops of 136 aid packages containing food for residents in the southern and northern Gaza Strip,” read the statement, which added that the operation was coordinated by COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Israeli military emphasized that they will “continue working to improve the humanitarian response alongside the international community” and reiterated their stance to “refute false allegations of deliberate famine in Gaza.”
The announcement comes as UN agencies warn Gaza faces an imminent risk of famine. More than one in three residents go days without eating, and other nutrition indicators have dropped to their worst levels since the conflict began.
The agencies also noted the difficulty of “collecting reliable data in current conditions, as Gaza’s health systems —already devastated by nearly three years of conflict— are collapsing.”
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry reported on Sunday that hospitals in the enclave recorded six deaths from hunger and malnutrition on Saturday, all of them adults.
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Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction