Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has been sentenced to 12 years of house arrest, marking a historic first for the country's ex-leaders. The ruling, issued by Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia, found Uribe guilty of abusing processes and bribing a public official in a long-running witness-tampering case, reports Reuters. He was also hit with a $578,000 fine and barred from holding public office for more than eight years.
Uribe, who led Colombia from 2002 to 2010 and heads the Democratic Center party, was convicted after a 13-year investigation. The case centered on allegations that Uribe ordered a lawyer to offer bribes to jailed paramilitaries in an attempt to undermine claims linking him to their organizations. The origins trace back to leftist Sen. Ivan Cepeda, who gathered testimonies from ex-paramilitaries tying Uribe to these groups in Antioquia, where Uribe was once governor. The nation's Supreme Court found it was Uribe's circle, not Cepeda, who'd pressured witnesses.
Uribe, 73, has denied the accusations and called the trial a political persecution; his legal team plans to appeal. "Politics prevailed over the law in sentencing," he said Friday, per the AP. Supporters echo claims of judicial overreach, while critics view the verdict as long-overdue accountability for alleged ties to right-wing paramilitaries—a connection Uribe has always rejected. The Guardian notes that Uribe is also being investigated for other matters, with a complaint even being filed against him in Argentina, "where universal jurisdiction allows for the prosecution of crimes committed anywhere in the world."
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The sentence arrives less than a year before Colombia's next presidential election, potentially complicating the campaigns of Uribe's allies. International reactions are already reverberating: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticized the ruling, fueling speculation about future US aid to Colombia.
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