A judge is being investigated over her TikTok dance videos which critics claim are “‘suggestive.”
Marianela Cabrera said her online activity is conducted at home outside of work hours.
She said she has never faced a disciplinary procedure before.
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The 47-year-old also said it violates her freedom of expression.
The judge has accumulated 530,000 followers on her TikTok page.
She said she started posting videos at home during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Marianela, a criminal judge at the Florencia Circuit Court in Caquetá, south of Bogota, Colombia, said her daughter encouraged her to try out TikTok.
She explained: “I thought it was a cool hobby. I once made a video, and I don’t know what happened, it became public and had a lot of views.
“By mid-2020, I already had over 400,000 followers on my TikTok page.”
According to reports, a complaint against her was filed by two citizens for posting videos of a “suggestive manner” that also “violated the decorum of the profession.”
Marianela said the complaint accused her of making videos with sexual content and of dressing “inappropriately,” as reported by Need To Know.
The complaint has reached the Caquetá branch of the National Judicial Discipline Commission.
She said in a radio interview that this is the first disciplinary process she has faced and that no other complaints have been filed against her regarding her conduct as a judge.
The mother-of-three also pointed out that she films all her videos at home in her own time.
Marianela said the disciplinary proceeding is currently in a “reserved phase”, adding that there is no “legal basis” to impose a disciplinary sanction on her over the matter.
The judge has suffered a number of tragic blows to her family members amid the long-running armed conflict in Colombia.
FARC guerrilla fighters murdered her father, recruited and later executed her only brother, and stripped her mother of her property.
Years later, her husband, an army officer, was also murdered, leaving her alone with three children, including a six-month-old daughter.
She used her personal tragedy to become a judge and deliver justice in the troubled department of Caquetá.
Amid the current internal investigation, she said: “I never imagined I would have to defend my dignity, my personal autonomy, and my free self-determination from the administration of justice.
“They will not be able to intimidate or silence me.
“I lost all fear the day I had the courage to overcome the consequences of the violence I have experienced.
“My voice is sustained by the solidity of my work, by the dignity and strength that violence could not take away from me.”
She has vowed to fight the proceedings initiated against her.
Marianela said: “Is having a personal hobby a sin?
“Why do they have to persecute someone like that?
“That’s what led me to break my silence,” she added.
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