A Colombian judge on Friday sentenced still-powerful former president Alvaro Uribe to 12 years of house arrest after he was found guilty of witness tampering, a legal source told AFP.
The sentence, which is due to be publicly announced later on Friday, marks the first time in Colombia’s history that a former president has been convicted of a crime and sentenced.
Uribe, who led Colombia from 2002 to 2010 and defined domestic politics for a generation, was found guilty of asking right-wing paramilitaries to lie about their alleged links to him.
While in power, Uribe led a relentless military campaign against drug cartels and the FARC guerrilla army.
He remains popular in Colombia for his crackdown, despite being accused by critics of working with armed right-wing paramilitaries to destroy leftist rebel groups.
A judge on Monday found him guilty on two charges: interfering with witnesses and ‘procedural fraud’.
Uribe, now 73 years old, insists he is innocent and is expected to appeal the ruling.
A law-and-order hardliner, Uribe was a close ally of the United States and retains close ties to the American right.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier decried Uribe’s prosecution, claiming, without providing evidence, that it represented ‘the weaponisation of Colombia’s judicial branch by radical judges’.
