Ex-Uribe official ordered jailed in wiretapping case

BOGOTA: A Colombian judge ordered the arrest Saturday of Bernardo Moreno, who was chief of staff under former president Alvaro Uribe, in an illegal wiretapping case.

Judge Marlene Orjuela ordered Moreno held in preventive detention just five days after the same government's agriculture minister, Andres Felipe Arias, was arrested for funneling millions of dollars in state subsidies for poor farmers to a handful of wealthy families.

The 2002-2010 Uribe government's intelligence service (DAS) chief, Maria del Pilar Hurtado, has fled to Panama and sought asylum. She is wanted in a wiretapping case of Supreme Court justices, opposition politicians and reporters critical of Uribe.

Moreno is being investigated for wiretapping ordered by the Uribe government and carried out by staff from the DAS, which reports directly to the president's office.

The defense for Moreno asked for house arrest, which the judge denied. He is scheduled to be held in a military or police facility for security reasons, said police general Gustavo Ricaute.

Several other former Uribe officials are also being investigated in the case, prosecutors have said.

The charges against Arias follow an investigation by Cambio magazine alleging that millions of dollars that were supposed to go to poor farmers instead went to wealthy landowners and agro-industrial companies that helped finance Uribe's 2006 presidential campaign.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011