Uribe case: Prosecutor’s Office already has data from Monsalve’s cell phone, warns the Supreme Court

A few hours ago, former President Álvaro Uribe sent a tweet assuring that the Investigation Chamber of the Supreme Court has withheld evidence that may be valuable for its judicial process. An official document from the high court shows that the Prosecutor’s Office has had access to this evidence since the file was handed over to them last September.

A few hours ago, with a message published from his Twitter profile, former President Álvaro Uribe once again generated controversy around his judicial process. The ex-president, investigated for alleged manipulation of witnesses, assured that the magistrate César Reyes (who was the instructor of the investigation against him while it was in the hands of the Investigation Chamber) has refused to deliver one of the evidence that remained under custody of that corporation while he was investigating the alleged illegal conduct of the former president: the cell phone of one of the key witnesses against him, Juan Guillermo Monsalve.

The complaint was not just anyone. If true, Judge César Reyes would be committing a crime, because, as is known, when the Supreme Court accepted that it lost jurisdiction over this file after Uribe resigned from Congress -which happened in August 2020-, that high The court was required by law to hand over the entire process to the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The viewer He immediately consulted Jaime Granados, Uribe’s defender in this case, who confirmed the version given by the former president on Twitter.

“A year ago, Inpec seized items from (Juan Guillermo) Monsalve, including seven SIM cards and a cell phone. What we asked the Supreme Court at the time was that what was seized from Monsalve in an internal disciplinary process be placed in the custody of the Court for the pertinent analyzes. The Court never ordered it, it never happened. Until now that the Prosecutor’s Office decides to control the legality of the materials seized by Inpec, the information they have handled refers only to sim cards, but the phone was not delivered by the Court, ”Granados reported to this newspaper.

Given the seriousness of what was denounced by former President Uribe and his defense, The viewer He learned of an official document from the Supreme Court that indicates that, although he has not provided the evidence that Uribe demands, the Prosecutor’s Office does have access to it. It is a matter of an order filed eight days ago, on February 25 of this year, in which mention is made of various matters related to the processes of Álvaro Hernán Prada -the representative to the Chamber of the Democratic Center investigated for the same facts that Uribe-, by Diego Cadena -Uribe’s former lawyer-, and with what was seized from Juan Guillermo Monsalve.

With regard to the elements that were seized from Monsalve on January 4, 2020, the Court points out that “within the process carried out by the coordinating prosecutor delegated to the Supreme Court of Justice Gabriel Jaimes Durán, the required evidence is already in place, since As already indicated, as a result of the breakdown of the procedural unit generated in this matter, a full copy of the action was sent to the office of the Attorney General of the Nation, who specially appointed the Coordinating Prosecutor Jaimes Durán to continue the criminal investigation against former Senator Uribe Velez ”.

The high court clarified that if the Prosecutor’s Office considers that the Technical Corps investigators must repeat the inspection procedure already carried out by the Court, the elements will be made available to the investigators who, within the Chamber’s facilities, will be able to carry out the procedure . Even, says the Court, the investigators can appear with expert experts who carry out the extraction of the information. However, he warned that “in no way (…) the devices in question will be delivered, which as probative evidence are already in the Court’s chain of custody.”

The Court added that the items seized from Monsalve, which are now required by the Prosecutor’s Office, are part of the probative material in the proceeding against Álvaro Hernán Prada. Therefore, as the Court indicates in said document, the Prosecutor’s Office cannot “incur in a sort of seizure of the elements legally seized by another judicial official and that of course are part of the probative material and physical evidence of a criminal process in force. ”. In this sense, the Supreme Court of Justice agreed to the request of prosecutor Jaimes, but under the aforementioned conditions.

The request of the prosecutor Gabriel Jaimes

Last Monday, February 22, 2021, an email arrived at the Secretariat of the Court’s Investigation Chamber stating that, by order of the prosecutor Gabriel Jaimes, an inspection of that Chamber should be carried out in order to obtain probative material. According to the specifications of the message, the prosecutor Jaimes had authorized three of his officials to visit the high court within 15 days and obtain a Samsung cell phone, without a sim card or charger; a computer; a battery and a charger. Items that were seized from Juan Guillermo Monsalve on January 4, 2020.

Prosecutor Jaimes’s order was that “once the aforementioned elements have been obtained, they will be subjected to a chain of custody and delivery to the General Evidence Store.” Now, what the Court explains about the trajectory of these elements is that on March 10, 2020 (six days after the elements were seized) the coordinator of the Judicial Police of the Investigative Support Unit for the Supreme Court of Justice, Luz Merly Acevedo, collected the required elements in the facilities of the National Directorate of Inpec.

The Court indicates in the document, that the official recorded that the elements were packed, labeled and under chain of custody registration. Subsequently, on March 30, the Court’s Investigation Chamber ordered the extraction of the information contained in the devices seized from Monsalve. This procedure, according to the high court, was informed to the parties of the process.

“The previous traceability carried out with respect to the actions in relation to the objects that were found for Juan Guillero Monsalve (…) allows us to clearly notice how it is certainly a means of proof that was legal, regular and opportunely related to the present investigation by the group of judicial police stationed exclusively for the Supreme Court of Justice, “said the Investigation Chamber in the document, ensuring that the elements are under a chain of custody that ensures their authenticity and integrity.