The research of three pieces of the case of Odebrecht in Colombia will be in the next few days in the hands of an ad hoc tax. The president Ivan Duke handed over this Tuesday to the Supreme Court of Justice a triplet formed by three jurists of the greatest trust and related to their Government. This is Margarita Leonor White Hair, who was at the head of that court until the beginning of 2017, Clara María González Zabala, current secretary legal of the Presidency and former counsel to the exmandatario Álvaro Uribe and Leonardo Espinosa Quintero, dean of the Faculty of Law of the Universidad Sergio Arboleda. Duke, who studied at the centre, stressed that “all are the guarantee of the transparency and professional capacity”.
“we Hope to speed up the election that clarified the facts and know all the truth.” With these words, the colombian president sought to settle the controversy that has surrounded the inquiry of the case of bribes millionaires paid by the builder brazilian in exchange for concessions. After the death by heart attack of the main witness of the scandal, Jorge Enrique Pizano, met some recordings of 2015 in the that this, an auditor of a work in which he participated Odebrecht, transmitting to the attorney-general, Néstor Humberto Martínez, his suspicions about possible wrongdoing. Martinez, then a lawyer for the conglomerate banking Group Guarantee, intervened in this project, was limited, as he himself emphasizes, to fulfill a function of “messaging”. Later, when he took over the reins of the office of the Prosecutor, delved into the research and finally opted for retreat.
These circumstances have increased, however, the pressure, Supertotobet political and social, for the Supreme Court to appoint a special prosecutor. The chosen shall be in charge of the investigations of a network of corrupt which involved, according to the Prosecutor’s office, over 90 people, of which eight have already been sentenced.
The ‘case Andrade’
One of the accused in the case, Luis Fernando Andrade, president of the National Agency of Infrastructure (ANI), was arrested a year ago and since then is under house arrest. This Tuesday, the judge ordered his release after that the organ that leads Martinez to refrain from requesting “extension of the measure of consistent underwriting on home detention”.
“The prosecuting body,” said the institution “considers that the decision made by the judge for control of guarantees 04 December 2017 already met its goal and the material elements of proof are safe, since in his time it was sought that Andrade no thing stand in the way of the process or manipulated the test set that has the office of the Prosecutor, a risk that disappeared because they were discovered”.
Andrade is accused of the crimes of “interest abuse in the celebration of contracts, in quality of author; concealment, alteration or destruction of tangible elements of proof, as co-author; and false testimony”. However, the former leader of the ANI claims to be the victim of a persecution. The attorney general said last week in an interview with THE COUNTRY that “the persecution is not so, because the Prosecution builds its case, it is a litigant in the criminal process and the guarantee that there will be absolute fairness and transparency, it will be a judge of the Republic, which assess the evidence and make the final decisions”.
