The Colombian Congress opened an investigation Tuesday into former president Alvaro Uribe's alleged role in an illegal wiretapping case that has already snared top officials, a senior legislator said.

Uribe ended his 2002-2010 administration on August 7 with sky-high approval ratings, but has been heavily criticized by human rights activists for a series of alleged abuses.

A lower house committee approved opening an investigation into the wiretapping case and "will investigate what responsibility ex-president Alvaro Uribe had in this affair," said the chamber vice president, Orlando Clavijo'.

Uribe said recently he was ready to assume legal and political responsibility for the actions of Bernardo Moreno -- his chief of staff from 2006 to 2010 -- who prosecutors sanctioned for not denouncing a case of illegal espionage by the DAS, Colombia's intelligence service, on opposition judges and reporters.

The DAS reports directly to the presidency. Eight other DAS members were also sanctioned in the case.
Moreno was banned from public office for 18 years for his role in the case.

Uribe traveled to the United States soon after leaving office, but was in Colombia on Tuesday showing his support for President Juan Manuel Santos and candidates in the upcoming municipal elections.

Separately, the government prosecutor's office said it notified former Uribe agriculture minister Andres Felipe Arias that he is being investigated on charges that he funneled millions of dollars in state subsidies for poor farmers to a handful of wealthy families.

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

Arias ran for president in the 2010 election as a member of the Conservative Party, losing to president Santos.

The charges follow an investigation by the magazine Cambio 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.

(Source: AFP)