Court orders Ex-Colombian President Uribe released from house arrest
Aug. 20 (UPI) -- A Colombia appeals court has ordered the release of former President Alvro Uribe from house arrest as he challenges his historic bribery and fraud conviction.
Uribe was sentenced by the 44th Criminal Court of the Circuit of Bogota on Aug. 1 to 12 years of house arrest after being convicted of charges connected to financial, legal and administrative offers made to former paramilitary fighters to testify against a political opponent.
Uribe is appealing the conviction, and on Tuesday, the Superior Tribunal agreed with his defense lawyers who were seeking his release from house arrest on the grounds their client's due process rights were violated.
"Thanks be to God, thanks to so many compatriots for their expressions of solidarity," Uribe wrote on X late Tuesday.
According to segments of the ruling published online by Christian Garces Aljure, a member of Colombia's House of Representatives, the Superior Tribunal found the criminal court used "vague, indeterminate and imprecise" criteria -- such as public perception, exemplary effect, peaceful coexistence and social order -- to justify the house arrest sentence.
"Such reasoning disregards the principle of equality before the law and the principle of proportionality, by prioritizing generic and symbolic aims over fundamental rights such as personal liberty," the court said.
"It is also disproportionate, given that the presumption of innocence prevails until a conviction becomes final," it said, with a final decision in the case to come down before mid-October.
"However, in this case, the measure effectively sought to enforce a penalty in advance under the guise of resocialization, based on an ambiguous argument -- namely, the concern that society might interpret the defendant's liberty as a scenario of impunity," the court added.
In posting the excerpt from the ruling, Garces celebrated the advancement of Uribe's defense, stating that the Superior Tribunal deemed the criminal court's ruling to be "disproportionate and involation (sic) of the fundamental principle of equality."
The case against Uribe goes back to 2012 when Uribe, then a senator, filed a complaint against Sen. Ivan Cepeda Castro, accusing him of witness tampering to link Uribe to illegal armed groups.
Amid its investigations, the Supreme Court of Justice found evidence that those close to Uribe had offered bribes to former paramilitaries and guerrilla fighters to testify against Cepeda.
He was then charged with manipulating evidence and misleading the justice system, resulting in his conviction and sentencing.
Uribe is the first former Colombian president to be criminally convicted in the country's modern history.
British Deputy PM Angela Rayner resigns
over tax scandal
"Given the findings, and the impact on my family, I have therefore decided to resign as Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, as well as Deputy Leader of the Labor Party," Rayner said in a press release.
"I have long believed that people who serve the British public in government must always observe the highest standards, and while the Independent Adviser has concluded that I acted in good faith and with honesty and integrity throughout, I accept that I did not meet the highest standards in relation to my recent property purchase," she added.
Rayner had stated Wednesday that she referred herself to Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards, Sir Laurie Magnus, in order to reach a determination on her realization that she paid an incorrect rate for Stamp Duty Land Tax on a home she purchased in May.
According to Raynor, she paid for her new home with a combination of a mortgage and money acquired from selling her stake in the residence she maintained with her former husband and their kids.
She alleges that she was given bad advice from her lawyers in regard to how much tax, or stamp duty she owed.
"I deeply regret my decision to not seek additional specialist tax advice given both my position as Housing Secretary and my complex family arrangements," Rayner said.
"I take full responsibility for this error," she added. "I would like to take this opportunity to repeat that it was never my intention to do anything other than pay the right amount."
Magnus issued a judgement Friday in which did note that "I believe Ms. Rayner has acted with integrity and with a dedicated and exemplary commitment to public service."
"I consider, however, that her unfortunate failure to settle her SDLT liability at the correct level, coupled with the fact that this was established only following intensive public scrutiny, leads me to advise you that, in relation to this matter, she cannot be considered to have met the 'highest possible standards of proper conduct' as envisaged by the [Ministerial Code]," he added.
The Ministerial Code are the standards all ministers are expected to uphold.
"Accordingly, it is with deep regret that I must advise you that in these circumstances, I consider the Code to have been breached," he concluded.
She also said she had resigned because of media pressure on her family.
"While I rightly expect proper scrutiny on me and my life, my family did not choose to have their private lives interrogated and exposed so publicly. I have been clear throughout this process that my priority has, and always will be, protecting my children and the strain I am putting them under through staying in post has become unbearable," Rayner explained.
"Thank you for informing me of your decision to resign from the Government," wrote Prime Minister and leader of the Labor Party Keir Starmer in a handwritten letter. "I am very sad that your time as Deputy Prime Minister, Secretary of State and Deputy Leader of the Labor Party has ended in this way."
She also received praise from Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero and former Labor Party leader Ed Miliband, who called her "one of the great British political figures of our time" in an X post Friday.
"I know she will continue to stand at the front of the fight for social justice in this country," he added.
However, other British political parties criticized Rayner and Starmer.
"What did Keir Starmer know, and when?" asked Conservative Party leader and Member of Parliament, or MP Kemi Badenoch in a video clip posted online. "Did he mislead the public?"
"He has now lost a Deputy Prime Minister after losing a Transport Secretary, an Anti-Corruption minister and a Homelessness minister to scandal," she continued, noting other members of Starmer's administration who have resigned over varied reasons.
"You can't be Housing Secretary, and avoid [$53,731] of stamp duty," said Reform UK leader MP Nigel Farage in an online video. "Angela Rayner is gone."
==================================================
Former Thai deputy leader Anutin Charnvirakul is new prime minister
Charnvirakul, 58, who served as the number two in Shinawatra's coalition government, and the two prime ministers before her, was able to win sufficient support by pulling his conservative Thai Pride Party from the power-sharing administration led by Shinawatra's populist Pheu Thai party.
However, with just 69 of the 500 seats in the National Assembly, he will need to cut a deal with either the People's Party or PT, the two largest parties.
His election delivers a further shock to the powerful Shinawatra family's political fortunes after Paetongtarn became the fifth prime minister to be removed in 17 years by the country's constitutional court with her father, Thaksin Shinawatra, reported Thursday night to be aboard a private jet en route to Dubai.
Thaksin Shinawatra, who made billions from developing the country's telecoms sector, only returned to Thailand in August 2023 after spending the past 15 years in exile abroad after fleeing corruption charges after he was ousted in a military coup.
He was due in court on Tuesday for a ruling on whether he has served sufficient time for convictions for abuse of power and conflicts of interest convictions -- but insisted he would return in time for the hearing.
His sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, was ousted in a military coup in 2014.
An engineer by training, Charnvirakul is heir to his family's Sino-Thai Engineering and Construction business empire, responsible for some of the country's biggest infrastructure projects, including Suvarnabhumi Airport, the country's main international air hub.
He led the company while serving a five-year political ban over his membership of Thaksin Shinawatra's then-Thai Rak Thai party, which was dissolved over alleged election rigging, before returning to found the Thai Pride Party in 2012.
Charnvirakul has also spearheaded a drive to legalize medical-use marijuana, eventually pushing through decriminalization legislation in 2022, prompting criticism that a lack of guardrails had triggered a tsunami of dispensing outlets and recreational use across Thailand.
He insists his aim had always been to make it easier for people to obtain the drug for medical purposes.
Thailand's Constitutional Court voted by 6-3 margin Aug. 29 to remove Paetongtam two months after she was suspended over a leaked phone call with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in which she criticized the Thai military, called him "uncle" and offered to do his bidding.
The conversation took place in June during deadly border clashes between the two countries.
Paetongtam said she was attempting to de-escalate in her call with Hun Sen by leveraging a long-standing friendship between her father and the former Khmer Rouge fighter.
Removing Paetongtam, the justices said she "lacks the qualifications and possesses prohibited characteristics" required under the country's constitution.
And, after all, we can't have peace suddenly break out!
