Colombian judge orders arrest of Martinelli lawyer who skipped house arrest

A guarantee judge in Colombia ordered on Thursday, March 3, the capture of Diego Cadena, a lawyer for former and former president Ricardo Martinelli.

The decision was made after the Colombian Attorney General’s Office requested the capture and change of precautionary measure “for non-compliance” with the house arrest that Cadena had maintained since December 2021.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the lawyer traveled abroad for which “he violated the security measure that covered him.” Colombia’s W Radio revealed on March 2 an image of Diego Cadena during his trip to Panama on February 15.

Cadena is being prosecuted for alleged tax fraud and bribery in criminal proceedings. According to the Colombian prosecutor’s investigation, Cadena paid large sums of money to an imprisoned former paramilitary to testify against Senator Iván Cepeda, and presumably to benefit his client Álvaro Uribe the former president of Colombia.

The Colombian lawyer represented former President Ricardo Martinelli in a claim against the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, for a story published in October 2019, referring to the case that managers of the construction company Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC) are being followed for payments of bribes in Panama