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Sources from the Cúcuta Police confirmed to EL TIEMPO that they issued an arrest warrant against the Police Major (r.) Juan Carlos Meneses. He is one of the key witnesses in the trial against Santiago Uribe Vélez.
His lawyer told EL TIEMPO that Meneses voluntarily presented himself to the Sijín and there they informed him that he had an arrest warrant from a specialized prosecutor’s office in Buga: “This is retaliation for his statements in the case against Santiago Uribe,” said the lawyer Carlos Toro. And added that I know deals with events of 2001 and 2002 and that Meneses applied for and was accepted at the JEP, therefore the Prosecutor’s Office has no competence to prosecute him.
(We invite you to read: Santiago Uribe seeks to overthrow key witness linking him with Venezuela)
According to Toro, they will request precautionary measures before international bodies, claiming that this process was hidden and that Meneses has already been accepted by the JEP.
(We invite you to read: The letters of the prosecutor Jaimes to request the preclusion of the Uribe case)
According to the arrest warrant, the acts for which he is sought are related to conspiracy to commit a crime for the purpose of murder in association with the self-defense groups, money laundering, fuel theft and illicit enrichment.
Jaime Granados says that there is evidence that Venezuela may have paid for the travel of one of the witnesses against Santiago Uribe.
The trial
In the trial against the cattle rancher Santiago Uribe, the eldest (r.) Is one of the key witnesses that involves him with the alleged formation of the paramilitary group ‘Los 12 apóstoles’.
(Also: Prosecutor’s Office says that seven witnesses of Santiago Uribe lied)
Meneses assures that when he was in Yarumal (Antioquia) he met the ranchers behind that illegal group, who delivered lists of alleged guerrilla collaborators who should be killed. And he narrated at least one meeting with Santiago Uribe.
The criminal lawyer Jaime Granados, defender of Uribe, disputed Meneses’s testimony for alleged inconsistencies and for ties with Venezuela and with a former member of the M-9.
For the defense of the rancher, within the file there is evidence that Meneses was protected in the neighboring country, before reappearing in Angentina declaring against Santiago Uribe.
(It may interest you: The video in which the mafia file mentions Diego Cadena)
“After keeping silent, he landed in the process (in 2010) on a golden parachute, in an exotic way,” Granados said in his closing arguments.
The trial against the rancher culminated on February 10, 2021 and the judge in the case is waiting to announce whether he will be found guilty or innocent of the charges against him: homicide and formation of illegal groups.
(See here all the articles of the Investigative Unit of EL TIEMPO)
Meneses, for his part, remains in the dungeons of the Sijín de Cúcuta.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
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@UinvestigativaET
