Former Colombian congresswoman Yidis Medina will be released from house arrest after having served three fifths of a four-year sentence for accepting bribes to vote in favor of the 2006 re-election bid of ex-President Alvaro Uribe
Medina was sentenced to prison in 2008 for having accepted bribes to change her vote in the last minute in favor of approving a 2004 constitutional amendment that would have allowed Uribe to serve a third consecutive presidential term.
Colombia’s prison authority did not give an exact date for the former congresswoman’s release.
Medina claimed in 2009 to have received death threats over her testimonies that incriminated several former members of the Uribe administration, some of whom are under criminal investigation for having offered the bribes.
Medina’s political career has long been surrounded with controversy. In June, she testified in court after being charged with arranging a kidnapping-for-ransom plot.
The controversial politician pled innocent to charges of arranging the 2000 kidnapping Ricardo Sequeda and Juan Carlos Carvajal, city officials from the Barrancabermeja municipality in northeastern Colombia.
Medina allegedly pressured the municipal officials to pay money owed to a cooperative she represented. The officials were reportedly kidnapped the following day by ELN guerrillas.
