When the process against Álvaro Uribe Vélez For allegedly bribing witnesses and procedural deception, it was in the hands of the Supreme Court of Justice, the high court included in its list of declarants about 42 people from whom he tried to hear his version.
This list shows the number of people who have heard, known or could be linked to one of the most controversial lawsuits.
(Read: The Uribe case: the deadline for the Prosecutor’s Office to decide whether to convene a trial)
These are the main characters mentioned in this process:
Alvaro Uribe Velez
The former Democratic Center senator and former president of Colombia has been under investigation since 2018, when the Supreme Court opened a formal lawsuit against him for alleged witness bribery and procedural fraud. The trial was opened because it is alleged that – through third parties – Uribe had sought out former paramilitaries in prisons, offering them gifts or benefits in exchange for declaring that he had never had links with the Self-Defense Forces and to show him senator. Ivan Cepeda to testify against him.
Uribe’s defense said it was not true that he pressed witnesses, that he never offered money or benefits in exchange for statements, that the court never offered guarantees – he even spoke of prosecution against him – because, according to him, they did have no witnesses in his favor and intercepted him illegally.
Ivan Cepeda
The senator, who was recognized as a victim in the trial against Uribe, assures that Uribe is the one who sought witnesses to delimitize him and make him withdraw the accusations in which he reports him to paramilitarism. Uribe’s defense, on the other hand, says he sought paramilitaries in prisons to give them benefits in return for testifying against the former president.
Cepeda says that even in the most difficult moments he did not think of leaving his activities.
Juan Manuel Vargas / TIME
Juan Guillermo Monsalve
The former paramilitary, who grew up on the “Guacharacas” farm owned by the Uribe Vélez family and showed his family that he promoted self-defense forces in Antioquia, told the Supreme Court that the former president’s lawyer Diego’s chain He was pressured to change his version and implicate Iván Cepeda in falsifying witnesses.
According to Uribe’s defense, Monsalve was never in Auc and was not admitted to Justice and Peace. The proof of this, say Uribe’s lawyers, is that he is paying a 40-year prison sentence for crimes committed in a gang in 2006-2008. The defense also assures that he is a false witness, that he has interests and that Monsalve was the one who sought to withdraw him.
(Read: The prosecutor tells the witness in the Uribe case that his duty is to testify).
After the Uribe case left the Court and went to the Attorney General’s Office, Monsalve refused to testify before the prosecuting body, which cited him several times and said it would only do so if there was an indictment or trial. against Uribe.
Monsalve’s lawyers say that the Prosecutor’s Office wants to “close it”, that they want to open a judicial process to everything as if it were the one under investigation and that they are trying to justify an exclusion in favor of the former president. On the other hand, Uribe’s defense assures that if he does not go to the Prosecutor’s Office, it is because it is clear that he is lying and that he will not bear an interrogation.
Carlos Enrique Velez Ramirez
Paramilitary Carlos Enrique Vélez is known by the alias of Commander Víctor.
The former paramilitary, detained in the Tramacúa prison in Valledupar, although he had been requested by Uribe’s defense, told the Court that the lawyer Diego Cadena made several payments to him, one of them for 2 million pesos. Subsequently, payments of 40 million pesos were known for his family, money that, according to Cadena, was humanitarian aid. Uribe’s defense states that the senator did not know about these money transfers.
Diego’s chain
Ethe lawyer who defended Uribe’s interests and who had previously been a lawyer for drug traffickers, said that if he had given money to Carlos Enrique Vélez, it would have been a humanitarian act because he had a sick relative. The prosecutor’s office accused him in 2020 of offering 200 million pesos to Vélez and legal advice to Juan Guillermo Monsalve, in exchange for declaring in favor of Uribe. Recently, Iván Cepeda’s lawyer said he would denounce Cadena for new crimes related to other alleged bribery and procedural fraud, but in the case that continues against the former president’s brother, Santiago Uribe. According to Uribe’s defense, Cadena’s work was limited to verifying the information that came to him through the citizens, in order to send it to the Court (Read: Diego Cadena, a lawyer for former President Uribe, will continue to be detained).
Diego Cadena, Uribe’s former lawyer, was prosecuted for allegedly bribing witnesses and procedural fraud.
Pablo Hernán Sierra
The former head of the Cacique Pipintá front of the Self-Defense Forces pointed to Uribe and his brother Santiago as the creators of the subway block of the Self-Defense Forces in Antioquia. Uribe’s defense has repeatedly denounced him for insult and slander, claiming to be a false witness. Uribe’s lawyers say the former president has not been to the Guacharacas farm since 1983 and deny that the subway block was created on the farm. Last year, in April, the Supreme Court of Justice banned the complaint of brothers Álvaro and Santiago Uribe against Sierra for the crime of slander, because the maximum time to make a decision in their case was exceeded.
Hilda Child Farfán
The former Justice and Peace prosecutor, who applied for a place in the JEP, had been arrested in June 2017 for favoring former paramilitaries and drug traffickers in exchange for documents. According to the Uribe case file, Niño received gabelas in exchange for discrediting the investigation against Santiago Uribe. In July 2018, the prosecutor stated in a hearing that it was alleged that the Prosecutor’s Office Eduardo Montealegre had developed a plan to renew Uribe Vélez.
In August last year, the Supreme Court sentenced her to 5 years for receiving gifts from drug traffickers Miguel Ángel Melchor Mejía Múnera, “el Mellizo” and Orlando Villa as a prosecutor for justice and peace. Zapata, in exchange for permits, benefited from the law of Justice and Peace. In December last year, the high court granted him parole.
Former prosecutor Hilda Niño provided information on the illegal conduct of various officials.
Kindness Colprensa
Enrique Pardo Hasche
Convicted of kidnapping, a prisoner in La Picota, who allegedly helped Uribe’s lawyers reach Juan Guillermo Monsalve, who was his cellmate.
The defense of the former president ensures that Monsalve was the one who, through Pardo, sent them the message that he wants to meet with Uribe’s lawyers to rectify his accusations. The defense claims that Cadena visited Monsalve, who had hidden tape recorders to manipulate the contents of the meeting.
Mary Mercedes Williamson
She was summoned because on February 22, 2018, together with Jaime Lombana, Uribe’s lawyer, she entered La Picota prison to meet with Enrique Pardo Hasche, Williamson’s brother-in-law. The woman told the court that she went to prison with lawyer Lombana, not because they wanted to talk to Juan Guillermo Monsalve or press a testimony, but because they wanted to visit Enrique Pardo exclusively to discuss Pardo’s legal situation. his state of health.
Eurydice Cortés Velasco
The former political leader of Auc assured that Diego Cadena gave him 700,000 pesos as travel allowance so that she could look for paramilitaries to testify in favor of the former president. Uribe’s defense claims that there are interceptions in which it is heard that Carlos Enrique Vélez is supposed to be calling her in a threatening tone in order to condition his statement with financial requests addressed to Uribe’s lawyers.
Mercedes Arroyave Ardila
The 71-year-old lawyer appears accompanying Iván Cepeda in various prisons in the country to talk to the paramilitaries. She was also a lawyer for Juan Guillermo Monsalve and Pablo Hernán Sierra. Although in the past she was summoned by the Supreme Court of Justice and now by the General Prosecutor’s Office, her testimony could not be accessed. According to Uribe’s defense, she could account for Cepeda’s alleged attempts to turn witnesses against Uribe.
Mercedes Arroyave, key lawyer in the investigation against Álvaro Uribe.
Juan Carlos “Tuso” Sierra:
The former paramilitary, who paid his sentence in the United States and is free in that country, is a defense witness. Sierra sent a letter to the Court stating that in 2009 he had been visited by a commission made up of Piedad Córdoba, Rodrigo Lara and Iván Cepeda to testify against Uribe.
Juan Carlos “Tuso” Sierra.
Eduardo Montealegre
Although the former attorney general never appeared as a party to Álvaro Uribe’s trial when he was in the hands of the Supreme Court, when he left the judicial corporation and went to the Prosecutor’s Office, Montealegre attended hearings demanding to be linked as an alleged victim.
Former prosecutor Eduardo Montealegre.
Photo:
The reason is that both Montealegre and his former deputy prosecutor, Jorge Perdomo, say that Niño said during the trial that they sought to make a montage against Uribe, statements that he describes as false.
JUSTICE DESIGN
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