Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was sentenced today to 12 years of house arrest for abuse of power and bribery of a public official, Reuters and the Associated Press reported, quoted by BTA.
Uribe was convicted on Monday on two counts by Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia in a witness tampering case that has been going on for more than 13 years. The former president has always denied the charges.
Judge Heredia read the verdict this afternoon, which also includes a fine of $578,000. The former president will also be banned from holding public office for the next eight years.
Alvaro Uribe is the first former Colombian head of state to be found guilty by the judiciary. The verdict comes less than a year before Colombia's presidential election, in which several of Uribe's allies and protégés are running.
Uribe's defense has said it will appeal.
The verdict against the former president could also have implications for Colombia's relations with the United States, Reuters reports. Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Uribe's conviction was an indication of "the weaponization of Colombia's judiciary by radical judges", and analysts said Washington could respond by cutting aid.
Seventy-three-year-old Uribe remains a key figure in his country's political scene and wields considerable influence over Colombia's right-wing, which has been in opposition since the country's first leftist president, Gustavo Petro, came to power in 2022.
Uribe, who was president from 2002 to 2010, has been accused of tampering with witnesses in an investigation related to him. In 2012, he accused leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda before the Supreme Court of plotting to falsely link him to paramilitary groups involved in Colombia's long-running armed conflict. The court then decided not to prosecute Ivan Cepeda and instead took up the charges against Uribe himself, suspecting that he himself had tried to manipulate witnesses - former fighters from armed groups who were in prison - to discredit his opponent.
The former leader claims that he only wanted to convince them to tell the truth, recalls Agence France-Presse.
According to the Truth Commission in Colombia, paramilitary groups that were disbanded under deals with Uribe's government have killed more than 205,000 people, almost half of the 450,000 deaths recorded during Colombia's civil conflict.
Paramilitaries, along with rebel groups and members of the armed forces, are also responsible for cases of disappearances, sexual violence, displacement and other crimes, Reuters notes.