Ex-president Uribe found guilty in witness tampering case

A Colombian judge on Monday convicted former President Alvaro Uribe of abuse of process and bribery of a public official in a long-running witness tampering case, making him the country’s first ex-president to ever be found guilty at trial, CNN reported.

Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia read her decision aloud to the court over the course of some ten hours. She found the right-wing politician not guilty of a separate bribery charge.

The ruling, which Uribe is expected to appeal, is the latest decision in a hugely politicized case that has run for some 13 years.

The decision comes less than a year before Colombia’s 2026 presidential election, in which several of Uribe’s allies and proteges are competing for the country’s top office.

Uribe, 73, and his supporters say the process is a persecution and that he is innocent. His detractors have celebrated it as the deserved downfall for a man who has been repeatedly accused of close relationships with violent right-wing paramilitaries, but never convicted of any crime.

Each charge carries a jail sentence of between six and 12 years. Heredia is expected to sentence Uribe in a later hearing, according to CNN.

Even if the conviction is eventually upheld, Uribe may be allowed to serve his sentence on house arrest because of his age.

Uribe, who was president from 2002 to 2010 and oversaw a military offensive against leftist guerrilla groups, was investigated along with several allies over allegations of witness tampering carried out in an attempt to discredit accusations he had ties to paramilitaries.