Alvaro Uribe settles scores with the press on air as new cases are filed against the ex head of stat

[Judi Lynn]

Alvaro Uribe settles scores with the press on air as new cases are filed against the ex head of state linked to “Dasgate”
Published on 3 December 2010

Some 40 people – including Radio Nizkor journalist Claudia Julieta Duque – on 30 November filed complaints against former president Alvaro Uribe linked to his alleged responsibility in the “Dasgate” illegal phone-tapping, threats and sabotage laid at the door of the intelligence services.

Uribe is due to appear before a special congressional committee which will allow him to escape more serious legal consequences.

This scandal that engulfed the Administration Department of Security (DAS) to which Reporters Without Borders devoted a mission report, has seen another new development with a case being brought, this time in Belgium on 29 November, by a score of organisations, including the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and Oxfam Solidarity, and a number of individuals in connection with phone-tapping carried out in that country by Colombian intelligence. Reporters Without Borders offers its support to these plaintiffs and hopes that the Belgian justice system will be able to question the former president. We believe that the scale of the activities carried out by the DAS, calls for an international investigation.

Former DAS director, María del Pilar Hurtado, the chief potential witness to the former head of state’s involvement in the corruption of this top intelligence service, has just conveniently obtained political asylum in Panama. While denying discussing her asylum request with her, Uribe himself confirmed that he advised his close associates to seek asylum abroad in a long interview he gave yesterday to RCN radio, to among other questioners, his former vice-president and journalist by profession, Francisco Santos !

More:
http://en.rsf.org/colombia-alvaro-uribe-settles-scores-with-03-12-2010,38954.html

(Emphasis added.)