Through an editorial published this Tuesday, the prestigious American newspaper Wall Street Journal, defended the second instance ruling that acquitted former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez of the crimes of which he had been accused and found him guilty in the first instance of charges of procedural fraud and bribery in criminal proceedings.

The article stated that while "there isn't much good news in Colombia these days, Tuesday was an exception when an appeals court overturned former President Alvaro Uribe's conviction for bribery and fraud," the Wall Street Journal article begins.

“A three-judge panel of the Bogotá Superior Court ruled that the prosecutor did not prove fraud and that the trial judge erred and demonstrated bias against Mr. Uribe. The ruling also overturned the 12-year sentence of house arrest,” the newspaper said of the court ruling in favor of the former president. The newspaper celebrated the acquittal against former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez. | Photo: SEMANA

The situation was then contextualized, asserting that the case against the former president was pure legal warfare, asserting that he remains influential on the right."Putting him behind bars has been a long-standing goal of the Colombian left, as demonstrated by the current leftist president Gustavo Petro with his tweet after the ruling."This is how the history of the paramilitary government in Colombia is hidden," he wrote. This is how justice is politicized," the New York media outlet asserted, criticizing the president.

“In 2017, Mr. Uribe sued Senator Iván Cepeda, alleging he was attempting to illegally obtain testimony from imprisoned right-wing paramilitaries against the former president. The Supreme Court's Criminal Appeals Chamber declined to investigate the complaint, but requested an investigation into Mr. Uribe,” the outlet said, referring to the case.

The outlet then expressed its support for the court's decision, as it had in the lower court ruling. “As we wrote in August, Mr. Uribe was denied due process before his trial and in the courtroom. Mr. Uribe's lawyers claim they were excluded from the investigative proceedings in 2018,” the editorial explains. According to the outlet, wiretaps and conversations recorded without the parties' knowledge are not legally admissible in Colombian courts. “Yet the judge allowed both. The leaks to the press and the manipulation of audio recordings were intended to distort the public record,” the Wall Street Journal says.

"Senator Cepeda stated that he will appeal to the Supreme Court, which accepts few cases, and that the hurdle to overturning an appellate ruling is high. At least for now, an injustice has been corrected in Colombia," the text concludes.