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The presidential candidate of Alvaro Uribe‘s Centro Democratico Party, Óscar Iván Zuluaga, formally filed a lawsuit with the Colombian Prosecutor against Admiral Alvaro Echandía, who was the director of the National Directorate of Intelligence, for allegedly having been part of an infiltration in his campaign when he was seeking to become president in 2014.
Zuluaga is demanding that Echandía be investigated for unlawful wiretapping, procedural fraud, bribing a witness, election interference, abuse of authority in public office, and conspiracy, arguing that the director of investigation at the Prosecutor’s office, Dany Julián Quintana, stated before several media outlets that the general asked him not to link him in the statements he was about to make before the Supreme Court of Justice in the trial that is being brought against several Uribe associates for allegedly having used a hacker known as Andrés Sepulveda, to spy on the peace process.
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In addition, Quintana allegedly also said that there was pressure put on him by General Padilla to not give complete information during his hearing in the Supreme Court of Justice held on Wednesday, November 9. Additionally, the same director of the CTI (Cuerpo Tecnico de Investigaciones), assured that Echandía invited him to his house to offer him the address of the Information and Financial Analysis Unit (UIAF) in exchange for his silence.
According to the ex-candidate, the National Directorate of Intelligence infiltrated the office of Sepulveda to record a video with which to discredit him that subsequently resulted in Zuluaga’s defeat in the second round of Colombia’s 2014 presidential election. Zuluaga won the first round, and claims the video was responsible for his second round loss.
Zuluaga says he expects the investigation to be carried out promptly, as the evidence comes from a senior official who was in charge of the Andrés Sepulveda hacking investigation. He added that his only desire is that the country know the truth about what happened in the election.
In the next few days he is going to be called to testify in the Sepulveda case. Sepulveda was sentenced to ten years in prison for illegally obtaining information to create a smear campaign against the reelection of current president Juan Manuel Santos.
Source: El Espectador
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