A Colombian court ordered, this Saturday (4), the house arrest of the country’s president, Ivan Duque. According to the ruling, he must spend five days in jail for failing to comply with a court order that required him to protect a national park.
Experts say the court order in Ibagué, capital of Colombia’s Tolima province, has no chance of being carried out. The president of Colombia can only be accused and investigated by a special legislative commission and can only be tried by the country’s Congress.
According to the court, the president has not taken steps to protect the Los Nevados national park, as ordered by the Colombian Supreme Court in 2020, the Ibague high court said in a statement explaining its decision.
The court also imposed a fine on the president of about $4,000 and ordered him to create a special unit of police or military personnel to help carry out conservation work in the park.
The president insisted that his government protected Colombia’s natural parks and complied with the court order to conserve the Los Nevados national park.
“We saw an inexplicable initial decision,” Duque said in a video shared on social media, calling the court decision unconstitutional and insisting that the Supreme Court’s order had already been carried out.
Evidence demonstrating Duque’s compliance with the Supreme Court’s order was sent to the court in Ibagué but was ignored, Justice Minister Wilson Ruiz said in a video statement sent to journalists.
*Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta and Oliver Griffin; Edited by David Gregorio
Source: CNN Brasil
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