Alvaro Europe: A judge has ruled that the former president of Colombia should go to trial in a case of bribery of witnesses.

That decision can be appealed by the European side to the Supreme Court of Bogot, which will make the final decision.

This is in the midst of a process that has been going on for years, shortly before the next presidential election, in which ownership, owned by Europe, risks his permanence in power.

The process against Alvaro Uribe is surprising because he is the most famous former president in recent Colombian history (twice senator and president between 2002 and 2010), but he can be a judge, not a high court. , Who decides whether Europe is innocent or guilty The same attorney’s office believes the event should not be reached.

The case, which began in the Supreme Court, went to the attorney general’s office in 2020, after which Uriff was placed under house arrest, resigned as a senator and lost his status as a judge and regained his independence.

The move was described as a ploy by Europe’s opponents so that his case could be transferred to an institution that could influence his party, which is currently in power.

The former president, for his part, a Political harassment And resigned due to lack of guarantee in court.

It all started in September 2014, during a debate in Congress, Senator Ivan ZepetaHe accused the left-wing polo Democratico of having links to the Alternative Party’s European paramilitary groups and drug traffickers.

In support of his allegations, he gave several testimonies from former paramilitaries.

In particular, he accused Metro Bloc, a branch of the United Defense Forces (AUC) of Colombia, of co-founding Uribe with his brother Santiago.

In response to the debate in the Senate, the former president sued Zepeda in the Supreme Court, accusing him of seeking to have former paramilitary forces in Colombian prisons serve as false witnesses against him.

The Supreme Court has been hearing the case for many years, in which both Uribe and Cepeda testified, as well as all the witnesses involved.

In 2018, the court dismissed the charges against Zepeta and, surprisingly, He launched a formal investigation into Europe for damaging witnessesThis includes bribery and practical fraud offenses.

There are 42 witnesses in this case, many of whom are incarcerated ex-servicemen. One of the important ones Juan Guillermo MansalveA former member of the AUC Metro Bloc, he faces up to 40 years in prison in Bogot.

Mansolve was one of the witnesses Senator Zepeda used to support the allegations against Eurip.

He testified that the assassinations were planned on a farm owned by the former president’s family in Antioquia and were later carried out illegally by these groups.

However, Mansolve later wrote a letter withdrawing these claims, stating that he had accepted the change “under pressure”.

Here comes another key character in this case: Diego chain, One of Uribe’s lawyers. Both Monsalve and other witnesses claim that Katena pressured them or paid them to change their testimony.

In fact, Mansolve says he has a record of the moment when the European lawyer pressured him.

Several witnesses have claimed to have received money from Gadena. The lawyer acknowledged that the small financial aid provided to some of the inmates was “humanitarian aid”.

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