The Superior Court of Bogotá has ordered on Tuesday the immediate release of the former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe, the first president of Colombia convinced criminally. The Criminal Chamber of this body has revoked the ruling that Judge Sandra Heredia issued in early August, which condemned Uribe to twelve years of house arrest for bribing witnesses and manipulating the judicial process open for its alleged links with paramilitary groups. The court argues that the magistrate violated the basic right to freedom by justifying her arrest with “vague and inaccurate” arguments.
In a resolution of 38 pages, the magistrates order Heredia to cease the “immediate deprivation of liberty” dictated against the former president “until (…) this Court defines the appeal filed against that determination of first instance.” The ruling emphasizes that the reasons wielded by the judge, such as “citizen perception, exemplary effect, peaceful coexistence and social order”, are “unattached” because the attributed behaviors “affected specific subjects, not in abstract to the social conglomerate.”
“This type of reasoning is unknown to the principle of equality before the law and the criterion of proportionality, by prioritizing generic and symbolic ends over fundamental rights such as the restriction of freedom, which is also disproportionate as soon as the presumption of innocence prevails until the conviction decision copper execution,” adds the Chamber that, in addition, criticizes that he inherited “insistently highlighted the public recognition of the prosecuted.” He must answer for what he did or stopped doing, not because of his personality, ideas or characteristics. ”
The background of the case
Álvaro Uribe, 73, has denied charges and claims to be a victim of political persecution. The condemnation in the first instance also imposed an disqualification of more than eight years to exercise public office and a fine of 3,444 million pesos (something like 720,700 euros). According to the investigation, the former president would have instigated his lawyer Diego Cadena to offer benefits to imprisoned exparamilitaries in order to modify his statements.
The judicial process started in 2012, when Uribe denounced the then Senator Iván Cepeda for allegedly manipulating witnesses in prisons to link it with paramilitarism. The Supreme Court, however, filed the investigation against Cepeda and opened one against Uribe himself. Since then, the former president went from accuser to investigated.
The Prosecutor’s Office presented a little over a week ago an appeal against the sentence, considering that it was supported by conjectures, an appeal that adds to the one filed by the defense of the ex -president. The Superior Court of Bogotá has a term until October 16 to resolve in the second instance the judicial future of Uribe.
