After nearly 12 hours of hearings on Monday, July 28, the 44th Criminal Circuit Judge of Bogotá, Sandra Liliana Heredia, read the verdict against former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez and declared him guilty in the first instance of two of the three crimes he had been charged with.
This is the first time a former Colombian president has been convicted of a crime. The judge acquitted him of simple bribery, but found him guilty of bribery in criminal proceedings and procedural fraud.
"The Attorney General's Office has confirmed the existence of his participation as a determinant of the punishable acts of procedural fraud in homogeneous competition and bribery in criminal proceedings," the judge stated, adding that, since the maximum sentences are four to eight years, he could be subject to house arrest.
At the end of the hearing, the judge asked the parties about the sentence assessment. The Prosecutor's Office supported the position of requesting house arrest.
For his part, criminal lawyer Jaime Granados, the lead defense attorney, said that" despite the meaning of the conviction, the presumption of innocence remains. A criterion of weighting and reasonableness must be established that prioritizes the freedom of those who have appeared during the process" and that "the imprisonment of those who are free does not automatically operate in light of the ruling."
The sentence of the so-called 'trial of the century' will be read publicly this Friday, August 1, at 2 p.m., said Judge Heredia, who said that she will share the decision with the parties in the morning.
The hearing took place at the Paloquemao court complex in western Bogotá, and was attended by the parties involved: Senator Iván Cepeda, who acts as the victim, and the former president's defense, led by criminal lawyer Jaime Lombana. Uribe Vélez and his attorney, Jaime Granados, did not attend because they were out of town and followed the reading virtually.
During the hearing, the judge spoke of a"criminal choreography" and an alleged "script."
The thesis of the Prosecutor's Office, represented by the delegate prosecutor before the Supreme Court of Justice - where the case originated -, Marlenne Orjuela, is that Uribe allegedly sent lawyer Diego Cadena to convince former paramilitaries, such as Juan Guillermo Monsalve, to testify in his favor, separating him from ties to paramilitarism in Antioquia, in exchange for legal benefits.
For its part, the defense has maintained that Cadena, who is being prosecuted in a parallel case related to this same file, went to La Picota prison in 2018 to hear the voluntary statements of Monsalve, who wanted to retract his 2011 statement, in which he linked Uribe Vélez and his brother Santiago to the creation of the Self-Defense Forces' 'Metro bloc'. This year, Santiago Uribe was acquitted of this alleged criminal link.
During the proceedings, both the prosecution and the defense presented more than 90 witnesses to support their respective arguments. A total of 67 hearings were held. In addition, evidence such as wiretaps ordered by the office of Supreme Court Justice Jorge Luis Barceló, who mistakenly tapped the former president's phone line while trying to access conversations with former Congressman Nilton Córdoba Manyoma related to other events, was presented and accepted by the judge.
Judge Heredia's decision is the first instance of a process that would continue in the Superior Court of Bogotá, in case either party appeals the decision, and could expire if there is no second decision before October 16.
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