Magistrate Manuel Antonio Merchan
The credibility of the magistrate who acquitted former President Alvaro Uribe is being questioned for similarly controversial rulings issued in the past.
Bogota appeals court magistrate Manuel Antonio Merchan surprisingly absolved Uribe of his fraud and bribery charges earlier this month in a ruling that revoked a 12-year prison sentence.
One of Merchan’s reasons to absolve Uribe was his opinion that wiretaps ordered by the Supreme Court were illegal.
The magistrate’s majority opinion contradicted that of the Supreme Court and that of three lower judges who had ratified the legality of this evidence.
Villavicencio scandal
Journalist Cecilia Orozco pointed out on Wednesday that Merchan’s credibility came under question in 2017 already, because of a similarly controversial decision.
This decision involved former Magistrate Alcibiades Bautista of the Villavicencio Appeals Court, who the Supreme Court convicted for bribery and abuse of power in March of this year.
The Supreme Court sentenced Bautista to 10 years in prison because he had taken bribes from organized crime figures’ attorneys in an attempt to frustrate court proceedings.
Bautista had more luck in the indictment hearing when Merchan refused to admit wiretaps that would have proven negotiations between the lawyers and the magistrate as evidence.
The decision became controversial after weekly Semana found out that Bautista’s brother was married to Merchan’s sister.
Scandal comes full circle
One of the mafia figures tried in the Villavicencio case was Hernan Dario Giraldo, a.k.a. “Cesarin,” a capo of organized crime group “Oficina de Envigado” who was appealing a murder conviction.
The Medellin crime lord was suspected of controlling more than 50 micro-gangs during an urban turf war that killed thousands.
As part of the corruption scandal, Bautista granted Cesarin an illegal house arrest, despite the suspect being an evident danger to society
The Medellin crime lord also appeared in court to testify on behalf of Uribe.
Cesarin and Uribe’s fixer, Diego Cadena, colluded to obtain the false testimonies of three imprisoned former members of paramilitary organization AUC, according to two lower courts and the Supreme Court.
According to Merchan, however, the testimonies obtained by Cesarin weren’t false at all.
