Opposition Senator Ivan Cepeda said Tuesday that he would request Colombia’s prosecution to seek the arrest of former President Alvaro Uribe’s fixer “to avoid further obstruction of justice.”
Cepeda is the victim of Uribe’s alleged fraud and bribery practices that are currently investigated by the Supreme Court.
The senator last week accused Uribe of violating a gag order over the former president’s public response to the Supreme Court’s announcement it had formalized the fraud and bribery investigation.
Plot twist in Colombia’s trial of the century: did Uribe babble himself into jail?
Cepeda’s counterattack
On Tuesday, the opposition senator stepped up pressure on authorities to effectively impose the law in relation to the powerful but allegedly criminal former president.
Most importantly, Cepeda called on acting Prosecutor General Fabio Espitia to “proceed to charge the crimes of bribery and procedural fraud, and ask the judge for “the detention of Uribe’s fixer, Diego Cadena, “to avoid further obstacles to justice and a possible escape of the suspect, if this has not already happened as suggested by some media.”
Additionally, the senator said he had asked the Inspector General’s Office to take action against Colombia’s ambassador to Washington DC, Francisco Santos, for allegedly slandering the Supreme Court.
Furthermore, Cepeda asked President Ivan Duque to refrain from expressing support for his political patron and “respect the principle of separation of powers.”
Uribe is Duque’s political patron and the boss of the president’s far-right Democratic Center party.
Colombia’s government and ruling party go into apparent panic mode over Uribe trial
Uribe is the one on trial, Cepeda stresses
Cepeda additionally bashed Uribe’s repeated attempts to portray himself as the victim rather than the suspect of witness tampering.
The former president is in court for allegedly filing false witness tampering charges against the opposition senator using bribed witnesses, but has continued to repeat the claims Cepeda conspired against him that were debunked by the court last year.
Given the apparent strategy of Senator Uribe Velez, his lawyers and his political followers to make it appear in the media as if I am the one who offered witnesses money… I must stress that it is not me that the Supreme Court of Justice is investigating for alleged bribery.
Senator Ivan Cepeda
Last but not least, Cepeda said that he and his attorneys will provide the Supreme Court with the evidence that would prove Uribe’s criminal behavior and prevent the charges from being dropped.
