(CNN Spanish) — This Friday, the Colombian prosecutor's office formally accused former President Alvaro Uribe of three crimes: procedural fraud, bribery in criminal proceedings and bribery, according to prosecutor Gilberto Ivan Villarreal in the impeachment inquiry convened to analyze the case.
The formal indictment of Uribe came hours after Bogotá's 44th criminal judge, Sandra Liliana Heredia, rejected a request by the former president's lawyers to cancel the entire process.
Judge Heredia said that Uribe was guilty from this moment on.
Before being summoned for trial this Friday, the former president denied the allegations against him and insisted he was not allowed to defend himself. “The guarantees don't seem to apply to me,” he said.
This is the first time in Colombia's history that a former president has faced such a trial in ordinary justice. If convicted, Uribe faces up to 12 years in prison.
The case against Uribe began in 2012, when former president Senator Ivan Cepeda accused him of wanting to create a paramilitary group. However, in 2018, the Supreme Court opened an investigation against Uribe to determine whether he tried to manipulate witnesses to speak against Cepeda.
In his statements before the trial, Uribe said: “I confirm that my political opponents have been able to become my accusers in the judiciary.”
As a defendant, the man who ruled Colombia from 2002 to 2010 will go to the evidentiary stage. The next hearing dates as announced this Friday are June 3, 4 and 5, July 10, 11, 12, 17, 30 and 31 and August 1 and 2.
The prosecutor's office announced on April 9 that it had requested the Supreme Court to summon the former president. The first hearing of the case was held on May 17.
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