Senator Uribe was formally affected by the process: Supreme Court

[Akrapovic]

The investigation to former president Álvaro Uribe lasted seven hours. He answered all the questions.

At five in the afternoon on Tuesday, the investigation of the former president and today senator of the Álvaro Uribe Vélez Democratic Center ended.
The judicial diligence lasted seven hours. The former head of state was with his lawyer, Jaime Granados.
Upon leaving he was calm and talked with several leaders of the Democratic Center. Now, the high court, who called him to answer for the crimes of bribery and procedural fraud, has the floor.
The Court, however, was categorical and announced that Uribe is "formally linked to the process," which means that the case continues. Now, the Court will begin collecting evidence to make a decision on whether to file the process or if there are enough elements to bring the former president to trial.
After hearing the senator today in the investigation on Tuesday, the Court must decide between these three options:
A. File the investigation after considering that there are no elements to accuse Uribe.
B. Continue with the process and bring the former president to trial for one or both crimes, but it would allow him to defend himself in freedom.
C. Perhaps the least likely, in addition to following the process against him, the Court could order his detention.
(You may be interested: 'No pressure will influence the decisions of the magistrates': Court)
On Tuesday's day, however, an end point has already been set. It started very early. Although it was scheduled for 8 a.m. m., started a little earlier because Uribe got up early and arrived earlier.
The first session lasted four continuous hours. There was a two-hour break for lunch and it resumed around two in the afternoon when Uribe re-entered the Courthouse to go to the Main Chamber of the Supreme Court.
It transpired that Judge César Augusto Reyes Medina asked him all the questions that he had prepared in a conditioned office at the seat of the Court, in the Plaza de Bolívar.
While outside protesters for and against expressed themselves with slogans, shouts or choirs. Although there were moments of tension, none had significance.
On the day there were relevant events through social networks.
The most significant, the declaration of the Court in which they make it clear that they respect freedom of expression but that they will not take any decision that is not attached to the law.
(Also read: The investigation of former President Uribe before the Court ends)
"No pressure will influence the decisions that magistrates are obliged to take in law," Álvaro Fernando García, president of the Supreme Court, said clearly.
A few words that were a balm on a day that was believed could be more critical. It was not be for lowerly. The most recent antecedent to such a high dignitary was that of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla. Although that was a political trial before Congress and was related to facts of his mandate. And one more recent was that of Ernesto Samper, being president, who rendered inquiries in the House, but the process against him did not prosper.
The other fact that also had an impact on the networks was the trill of the Colombian ambassador to Washington Francisco Santos, who said that he woke up on Tuesday morning "in pain of homeland" and that is why he launched very hard darts against the Cut. A while later, he deleted it.
Then this same social network was the scene of comments for and against, but just as the temperature dropped in the streets there too. Indeed, the protesters in the city center dispersed around noon before the threat of rain while the fluttering on Twitter also went down.
But why was Uribe in court on Tuesday? This is an open file for witness mani[CENSORED]tion. This entails two violations of the law: bribery and procedural fraud.
Allegedly, the file says, Uribe would have tried to pressure the ex-Juan Juan Monsalve to retract the accusations in which he links him with the birth of the paramilitary groups in Antioquia.
Uribe has argued that he always fought those criminal gangs and that it was his government that demobilized them, between 2003 and 2006. He has also said that it was Monsalve who sought him because he wanted to retract his "false accusations."
In September 2014, Álvaro Uribe denounced Senator Iván Cepeda because, according to him, he was mani[CENSORED]ting witnesses against him. In February last year, the Criminal Chamber of the Court closed the investigation against Cepeda and, contrary to what Uribe intended, considered that there were sufficient elements to issue copies against the former president for an alleged mani[CENSORED]tion of testimonies to harm Cepeda.
In response, according to the file, Uribe sought to approach Juan Guillermo Monsalve to retract his accusations. On July 24 of last year, the then magistrate José Luis Barceló, of the Criminal Chamber, opened a process