Journalist and nephew of ex-president Ernesto Samper Pizano, Daniel Samper, initiated legal action against the Ex-Colombian President Álvaro Uribe for “unfounded defamation” this past Wednesday. The defendant’s attorney will be Jaime Lombana, who has specified that Uribe’s defense strategy will be “legitimate defense of a third party”.
Lombana said that Uribe’s accusations against Samper were true.
“Samper is a transgressor of the rights of minors in his satires and columns. Every week a new person becomes a victim of his insults. I think this is a lesson for journalists, as well as Samper, we want to reason with them and to stop offending others“, he said.
As a response to Uribe’s statement on Sunday, where he said Samper mistreated a three-month-old child and published illegal under-age pornography when he was director of “Soho” magazine, Samper published a video saying that he started legal actions against Uribe.
“About Uribe’s defamation, he made new accusations and tried to describe me as a “sexual monster” which I am not, only to support his miserable allegations that I am a child rapist.“, the journalist said in the video.
Uribe’s accusations were in response to a June article, written by Samper, in which he launched a vicious attack on the state and people of Antioquia, their heritage, and on Uribe himself.
Many of Uribe’s supporters claimed that the ex-president’s comments were taken “out of context”. The legal battle will put the rights of the press against the rights of free speech. The trial is not expected to be resolved in 2017.
