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News > Colombia

Colombian Judge Rules to Free Former President Alvaro Uribe

  • Former President Alvaro Uribe, Bogota, Colombia.

    Former President Alvaro Uribe, Bogota, Colombia. | Photo: Twitter/ @Lapapayadigital

Published 10 October 2020
Opinion

"Thank God," Uribe tweeted after learning of the verdict that will end the house arrest that was imposed on him in August, 2020. 

Bogota's Guarantee Control judge Saturday conceded the immediate freedom of Colombia's former president Alvaro Uribe because there are "no charges against him." 

RELATED:

Colombia: Supreme Court Orders House Arrest for Alvaro Uribe

After several months in detention at his farm El Uberrimo, in Cordoba, the former president can regain his freedom through the process of bribing witnesses and procedural fraud against him. 

"It is neither possible nor constitutionally permissible to hold a person in detention when he does not yet face charges," the judge said during a hearing.

It is not the same the 'investigation' and the 'imputation of charges, according to the public prosecutor Jaimes Duran.

"In the first one, the person is hardly being investigated, in the second one there is already a whole investigative work that has allowed to arrive at conclusions on the prosecuted's presumed responsibility," Duran explained.

"Thank God," Uribe tweeted after learning of the verdict that will end the house arrest that was imposed on him in August. 

The judge held that guarantees must be given to the investigated party and that her decision is not arbitrary or capricious.

The Prosecutor's Office will continue to investigate the case in order to reach a decision on whether or not to charge former President Uribe.

On August 3, the Supreme Court defined his legal status for the crimes of bribing witnesses and procedural fraud. Since Uribe resigned from the Senate, his case passed to the Prosecutor's Office. 

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