Bogotá Superior Court has ruled that politician could respond in freedom to charges of bribery and fraud
The Bogotá Superior Court revoked on Tuesday (19.ago.2025) the decision of the former president of Colombia (Democratic Center, Right).
Uribe had been sentenced on August 1 to house arrest for 12 years for crimes of procedural fraud and witness bribe. The decision was considered historical in the country, for involving for the first time a former chief chief of state in a criminal conviction with immediate penalty, a fact that caused great repercussion inside and outside Colombia.
According to the agency the Court reported that the house arrest was ineffective until the corresponding criminal court defines the appeal. With this, the former president may wait for freedom until the decision of the first instance is permanently analyzed by the Colombian judiciary, which can still confirm or alter the conviction.
The former president in X a thank you for the expressions of solidarity: “I will dedicate every minute of my freedom to the freedom of Colombia”.
On July 28, Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia, from, said Uribe guilty to the end of one that extended for about 13 years. At the time, he recognized criminal liability. Days later, on August 1, he defined the penalty and the additional sanctions.
In addition to the arrest, the judge ordered the former president to be fined $ 578,000 and prevented from holding public office for 8 years.
Uribe, who ruled Colombia from 2002 to 2010, has always denied the accusations, appealed from the convictions and classified the case as political persecution, argument repeated by his closest allies and members of his party.
The process originated in 2012, when Uribe accused the Senator (PDA, left) of orchestrating his binding to paramilitary groups. Cepeda collected testimonials from former paramilitaries who said Uribe supported her organizations when she was governor of Antioch in the 1990s.
In 2018, he concluded that Cepeda had not paid or pressured the former paramilitaries to witness against Uribe. Investigations, by contrast, pointed out that the former president would have ordered a lawyer who ran over paramilitary to discredit the accusations about his calls with these illegal organizations.
