A Colombian judge has 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. Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia read her decision aloud to the court over the course of some ten hours, finding the right-wing politician not guilty of a separate bribery charge. The ruling, which Uribe’s legal team said he will appeal, is the latest decision in a hugely politicized case that has run for about 13 years.
Uribe, who was president from 2002 to 2010, was investigated along with several allies over allegations of witness tampering carried out in an attempt to discredit accusations he had ties to paramilitaries. Judges have twice rejected requests by prosecutors to shelve the case, stemming from Uribe’s allegation in 2012 that leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda had orchestrated a plot to tie him to paramilitaries.
Detractors and supporters of the former president gathered outside the court, with some Uribe backers sporting masks of his face. Even if the conviction is eventually upheld, Uribe may be allowed to serve his final sentence on house arrest because of his age.
Colombia’s truth commission says paramilitary groups, which demobilized under deals with Uribe’s government, killed more than 205,000 people, nearly half of the 450,000 deaths recorded during the ongoing civil conflict. Paramilitaries, along with guerrilla groups and members of the armed forces, also committed forced disappearances, sexual violence, displacement, and other crimes.
