Colombia: court orders detention of ex-president Uribe amid fraud inquiry
Source: The Guardian
Colombia’s supreme court has ordered the detention of the hardline former president Álvaro Uribe amid an investigation into allegations of witness tampering and fraud in relation to crimes committed during the country’s 52-year civil war.
Tuesday’s decision shocked Colombians, who remained deeply divided over the Uribe’s 2002-10 administration, which was defined by his military campaign against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), a leftist rebel group that later demobilized in 2016.
No Colombian president has been formally detained before.
“This is huge, not least because Uribe is considered the most powerful man in the country,” said Sergio Guzmán, the director of Colombia Risk Analysis, a consultancy. “It shows that nobody is above the law in Colombia, not even Uribe.”
-snip-
Joe Parkin Daniels in Bogotá
@joeparkdan
Published on Tue 4 Aug 2020 22.31 BST
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/04/colombia-alvaro-uribe-supreme-court-house-arrest
Also: Colombia orders arrest of former president Alvaro Uribe (WPLG-TV)
