BOGOTÁ: A Colombian court on Monday turned down a request by ex-president Alvaro Uribe to be granted temporary freedom while appealing his sentence of 12 years’ house arrest.
Uribe’s criminal conviction -- the first to be issued to a former leader of Colombia -- marked a dismal cap for the career of one of the country’s most divisive politicians.
The 73-year-old, who remains highly popular and influential among conservatives, led a relentless military campaign against drug cartels and the FARC guerrilla army while president from 2002 to 2010.
A judge with the Superior Tribunal of Bogota on Monday ruled “to not issue the provisional measure” requested by Uribe’s attorneys, saying in the court ruling that the appeal for release “does not meet the standards of urgency” required by Colombian law.
Uribe was convicted of interfering with witnesses in a separate investigation into his alleged links with right-wing paramilitaries responsible for atrocities while fighting leftist rebels.
He was also convicted of obstructing justice.
At his sentencing, the trial court judge declared him to be a flight risk and ordered him to be placed under house arrest at his home in the town of Rionegro, near Colombia’s second city of Medellin.
Uribe’s lawyers had petitioned the Supreme Court on Monday to set him free, assuring he had no intention of leaving his homeland.
A law-and-order hardliner, Uribe was a close ally of the United States and retains ties to the American right.
He claims his conviction is a political witch hunt by the administration of left-wing President Gustavo Petro.
He has until August 13 to appeal his conviction, at which point an appellate court has until October 16 to issue a ruling. If that date passes without a decision, the case will be considered closed.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has decried the case against Uribe, saying it represented “the weaponization of Colombia’s judicial branch by radical judges.” - AFP
