BOGOTA: Colombia's former president Alvaro Uribe denied Monday that his onetime intelligence chief had done anything illegal after she was flown home to face charges of spying on his political opponents.
Maria del Pilar Hurtado, the former intelligence chief, was arrested Saturday after surrendering in Panama, where she had lived for more than four years under political asylum.
"Neither she, nor the presidency, nor did I order illegal actions," Uribe said on his Twitter account.
Defending Hurtado as an "upright official" with a good reputation, Uribe insisted that wiretaps she had ordered were legitimate "national security operations."
Uribe specifically claimed as legal a wiretap on former senator and Bogota mayor Gustavo Petro that touched off the scandal.
Hurtado, 51, is accused of ordering wiretaps on Petro, other leftist politicians, judges and journalists when she led the now-defunct Administrative Department of Security from 2007 to 2008.
The DAS, as it was known, reported directly to the presidency, which Uribe held from 2002 to 2010.
Uribe's successor President Juan Manuel Santos disbanded the agency after a series of scandals.
Attorney General Eduardo Montealegre said over the weekend that "there is convincing evidence that she ordered illegal surveillance of Supreme Court justices, against opposition leaders" and others.
He said Hurtado faced 15 to 20 years in prison if convicted.
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