Ex-Senator Piedad Cordoba questioned the impartiality of a Congress commission assigned to investigate former President Alvaro Uribe’s involvement in the illegal wiretapping of government critics, reports El Tiempo.
After a Cordoba held a meeting with the investigative team that lasted only an hour, her lawyer told press that the ex-senator had not yet given evidence to the commission, as she wishes to testify as a victim, not as a witness.
Codoba criticized the commission head, Conservative Party congressman Alfredo Bocanegra Varon, according to her lawyer. “He has not only been part of the uribista coalition, which implies that he has a political interest in this investigation. Furthermore, this agent has made aggressive and slanderous statements against [Cordoba],” the lawyer said.
The team of three Congress members who are investigating Uribe’s involvement in the illegal surveillance by security agency DAS also includes Heriberto Escoba, of the PIN party, and Augusto Posada, of Partido de la U. All three members are from strongly pro-Uribe parties that were part of the former president’s coalition. According to commission president Hector Javier Vergara, the investigators were chosen randomly.
In response to Cordoba’s comments, the lawyer representing Uribe said that his client was being persecuted, and that the ex-senator was seeking to “politicize” the process; “President Uribe is the persecuted one, and he does require guarantees of objectivity and impartiality.”
Bocanegra said that the commission would examine Cordoba’s request, and decide within three days whether she can testify as a victim.
The committee opened a preliminary investigation on October 12 into the former president’s role in the wiretapping, carried out by intelligence agency DAS, and began a full investigation on October 21. Cordoba requested that she be able to testify before the investigation.
