BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s former President Alvaro Uribe said his long-running witness tampering case will go to trial, citing a news magazine ahead of an expected formal decision from a Bogota court on Friday.
Uribe and several allies have been investigated over allegations of witness tampering carried out in an attempt to discredit accusations he had ties to right-wing paramilitaries. The former president has always maintained his innocence.
Some media on Thursday reported that Uribe would face trial, citing sources.
“Clearly I read this with enormous concern. I have ardently defended my reputation but I don’t know anything about bribing witnesses or misleading the court,” Uribe told journalists on Thursday night.
The Superior Court of Bogota is set to announce its decision later on Friday as to whether the long, deeply polarized case – where Uribe’s supporters allege persecution and his detractors celebrate it as a deserved downfall – will go to trial.
In May, a judge dismissed a request from prosecutors to shelve the case.
The attorney general’s office asked in March 2021 for a hearing on potentially curtailing the investigation, after it found Uribe’s conduct did not constitute a crime.
The divisive former president, who could serve 12 years in prison if convicted, resigned his senate seat in 2020 after the Supreme Court ordered house arrest.
His resignation triggered the case’s transfer to the attorney general’s office and a judge lifted his house arrest after two months.
The case stems from a 2012 allegation by Uribe, who accused leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda of orchestrating a plot to tie him to paramilitaries.
But in 2018 the Supreme Court said Cepeda had collected information from former fighters as part of his work and had not paid or pressured former paramilitaries. Instead the court said it was Uribe and his allies who pressured witnesses.
(Reporting by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Nick Macfie)
