Constitutional Court ratified indictment of crimes against former President Uribe in trial for alleged manipulation of witnesses

The Constitutional Court ratified the nullity of the guardianship with which the defense of former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez intended not to be charged with the crimes of procedural fraud and bribery within the criminal proceedings against him by allegedly trying to change the version of the 'expara' Juan Guillermo Monsalve so that he would retract from his accusation that the former president formed anti-subversive groups outside the law and assured, on the contrary, that Senator Iván Cepeda was the one who offered him perks to make that statement

In the television news report Noticentro Uno CM& they indicated that the decision was unanimous after the vote of the nine judges of the Court denying him the nullity of such protection and whose decision was argued that the inquiry against Uribe in the Supreme Court of Justice, when he was a senator, amounted to the imputation of charges within the accusatory penal system.

It should be recalled that earlier this year, the defense of the former president, led by lawyer Jaime Granados, requested that the Constitutional Court rejected the guardianship filed by former President Álvaro Uribe in which he argued that his fundamental right to due process and defense, so he sought to have his accused status withdrawn, but that in that high court they denied in November 2021.

The high court had already concluded that an inquiry in the Supreme Court of Justice is comparable to an allegation of charges before an ordinary judge. Thus, with a 5-4 vote, most magistrates were against protecting Uribe's guardianship.

Weeks later, on January 13, 2022, the high court published the ruling confirming that decision, which includes 72 pages in which they relate and argue their position.

“Based on the above considerations, the Supreme Court concludes that the disputed order did not harm the fundamental rights of the claimant (Uribe), having him as a result of the adaptation of the procedural action of Law 600 to Law 906, generated by his renunciation of the constitutional jurisdiction that protected him as senator of the Republic. Consequently, it is necessary to revoke the single-instance judgment that declared the requested amparo inappropriate and, instead, to deny it”, the text reads.

This point was reached after Uribe resigned from his seat on August 18, 2020, which was accepted by the board of directors of that corporation. On 20 August of the same year, the defense of the former president requested the Special Investigation Chamber to refer the case for alleged manipulation of witnesses to the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Nation, since the Supreme Court had lost jurisdiction to continue the investigation due to the loss of constitutional jurisdiction, in addition to the fact that the punishable conduct for which he is being investigated is not related to the functions that Uribe performed as a senator.

In the case in the Prosecutor's Office and in turn in the ordinary courts, the first hearings were held before the 30th Court of Control of Guarantees, Uribe's release was ordered but that same judge left the accusation made to her by the Supreme Court.

For this reason, Uribe's defense filed a guardianship that reached the Constitutional Court. In that appeal, the former president's lawyers stated that there was a direct violation of the Constitution which gives the Office specific competence to carry out the indictment.

What they were looking for was for the investigating body to have the capacity to decide on the allegation instead of taking the one already made by the Supreme Court, which found sufficient evidence that Uribe had bribed witnesses (convicted paramilitaries such as Juan Guillermo Monsalve) to change their version that his brother, He and Santiago Uribe founded a block of armed self-defense groups in the Hacienda Guacharacas, owned by the Uribe.

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