Colombia ex-president Uribe guilty
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's legal team said he will appeal, is the latest decision in a hugely politicized case that has run for about 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 on Friday, as well as decide if he will remain free on appeal.
"Justice does not kneel before power," Heredia told the court on Monday morning as she opened her remarks. "It is at the service of the Colombian people."
"We want to say to Colombia that justice has arrived," she said, adding that her full decision is some 1,000 pages long.
Uribe and one of his lawyers, Jaime Granados, joined the hearing via video link, while another lawyer, Jaime Lombana, appeared in person.
"This is not the end of this process, the appeal is next and we are going to demonstrate that this decision, which we respect, is wrong," lawyer Juan Felipe Amaya, part of Uribe's legal team, told journalists at the court.
Granados told the hearing that the presumption of Uribe's innocence should be maintained and asked for him to remain free during the remainder of the process.
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.
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.
Judges have twice rejected requests by prosecutors to shelve the case, which stems from Uribe's allegation in 2012 that leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda had orchestrated a plot to tie him to paramilitaries.
The Supreme Court said in 2018 that Cepeda had collected information from former fighters as part of his work and had not paid or pressured former paramilitaries. Instead, the court said it was Uribe and his allies who pressured witnesses.
Cepeda attended the Monday hearing in person with his counsel.
Uribe's trial triggered sharp criticism from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ahead of the judge's decision. Uribe had a close relationship with the US during his two terms as president.
"Uribe's only crime has been to tirelessly fight and defend his homeland. The weaponization of Colombia's judicial branch by radical judges has now set a worrisome precedent," Rubio said on X.
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