Colombia: Supreme Court Leaves Uribe Case With Attorney General

The Colombian Supreme Court of Justice ratified this Monday the competence of the Guarantees Judge #30 of Bogota, Clara Ximena Salcedo, to adjudicate the petition of freedom of the ex-president and ex-senator Alvaro Uribe.

Simultaneously, the ruling court determined that the forrmer president's case should continue to be handled by the accusatorial criminal justice system.

The Plenary Chamber of the high court validated the decision made by a judge of the Paloquemao court complex in Bogotá on September 22.

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The former senator has been under house arrest at his farm El Ubérrimo, located in Córdoba, since August 12.

On August 3, the Supreme Court of Justice ordered a detention order against Uribe to investigate procedural fraud and bribery.

The case was initially in the hands of the Supreme Court, which took it over because Uribe was a senator at the time. But when the former president resigned his Senate seat, the court was forced to pass the case to an ordinary court.

With the file already in the hands of an ordinary judge, the court received a request for clarification regarding the law to be applied in this case. 

The consultation was about whether the new accusatory criminal system (under Law 906) or the inquisitorial system (under Law 600)—the procedure being used until the transfer to the ordinary justice system—should be applied.

The Supreme Court limited itself to only answering the Guarantees Judge #30, who raised the question of the law by which the process should be carried out for the charges of witness tampering.

The Supreme Court of Justice informed that the judge, with the function of Control of Guarantees, will also have the competence to determine at what stage the process against Uribe should move forward for the crimes of procedural fraud and bribery.