In less than 24 hours, two writs of protection have been filed seeking to annul the immediate arrest warrant against former President Álvaro Uribe, who was sentenced in the first instance to 12 years in prison for witness bribery and procedural fraud. The first document that reached the Superior Court of Bogotá was that of the former president's lawyer, criminal lawyer Jaime Granados, who indicated that Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia had violated her client's rights by ordering his arrest based on arguments that lack solidity.
Now it is the Democratic Center, of which Uribe is the political leader, that has addressed the Court requesting that the arrest ordered by Heredia be dismissed. Until now, the arrest must be carried out at the former president's farm in Llanogrande, a well-known sector of Rionegro, Antioquia. The person who brought the claim to court is the party's leader, Gabriel Vallejo.
The document alleges a violation of due process, personal liberty, equality, and non-discrimination. In short, they argue before the Court that the former president should continue to defend himself in freedom.
The first protection has already reached the Court, and it corresponded to Judge Ramiro Riaño, who months ago declared himself unable to rule on the Uribe case due to a close relationship he had with former prosecutor Eduardo Montealegre, now a minister and accredited as a victim of Uribe.
The judge has not said whether he will also declare himself impeded this time, but what is known is that this issue is already on the table, with the precedent that Álvaro Uribe was acquitted of the crime that made Montealegre the victim.
Regarding the first tutela, lawyer Jaime Granados alleged that his client's procedural guarantees were violated and must be reviewed immediately, and therefore warned that although there is an appeal in progress, the tutela is the ideal mechanism to stop the alleged abuse.
For the criminal lawyer, the immediate arrest" was carried out under serious motivational flaws and in clear disregard of his presumption of innocence, making his detention arbitrary and contrary to human dignity." Likewise, that" presupposes depriving a citizen of his liberty under unconstitutional premises that imply ignoring his presumption of innocence and treating him as guilty."
Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia, when ordering Uribe's arrest, argued that peaceful and harmonious coexistence among citizens must be maintained and that the"negative perception that people can continue to enjoy their freedom despite a conviction" must be avoided.
For the defense,"due to its lack of clarity and development, it can be interpreted in different ways, without it being entirely clear what the correlation is between the deprivation of liberty of Dr. Álvaro Uribe and the preservation of 'peaceful and harmonious coexistence among citizens.'"
