Former Colombia president Alvaro Uribe found guilty in landmark bribery trial
Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has been found guilty of witness tampering and bribery in a landmark trial, becoming the country's first ex-president to ever be found guilty at trial.
Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia ruled on Monday that there was enough evidence to determine that Uribe, 73, conspired with a lawyer to coax three former members of paramilitary groups who were in prison into changing testimony they had provided to Ivan Cepeda, a left-wing senator who had launched an investigation into Uribe's alleged ties to a paramilitary group in the 1990s.
The case dates to 2012, when Uribe filed a libel suit against Cepeda with the Supreme Court. But in a twist, the high court dismissed the charges against Cepeda and began investigating Uribe in 2018.
Uribe faces up to 12 years in prison, but a sentencing will be delivered in a separate hearing on Friday. He is expected to appeal the ruling.
Uribe's critics have celebrated his trial as the deserved downfall of a man repeatedly accused of close relationships with violent right-wing paramilitaries, but never convicted of any crime.
The former leader, 73, and his supporters say the process is a persecution and that he is innocent.
Uribe and one of his lawyers, Jaime Granados, joined the hearing via videolink, 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.
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