{"id":310321,"date":"2025-08-01T22:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T22:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/310321\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T22:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T22:03:10","slug":"colombias-ex-president-alvaro-uribe-sentenced-to-12-years-house-arrest-for-witness-tampering-colombia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/310321\/","title":{"rendered":"Colombia\u2019s ex-president \u00c1lvaro Uribe sentenced to 12 years\u2019 house arrest for witness tampering | Colombia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colombia<\/a>\u2019s still-powerful former president \u00c1lvaro Uribe has been sentenced to 12 years of house arrest, capping a long and contentious career that defined the country\u2019s politics for a generation.<\/p>\n

Uribe, aged 73, received the maximum possible sentence after being found guilty of witness tampering<\/a>, a legal source told AFP.<\/p>\n

The lengthy house arrest, which is due to be publicly announced on Friday, marks the first time in Colombia\u2019s history that a former president has been convicted of a crime and sentenced.<\/p>\n

Uribe led Colombia from 2002 to 2010 and helmed a relentless military campaign against drug cartels and the Farc guerrilla army.<\/p>\n

He remains popular in Colombia, despite being accused by critics of working with armed rightwing paramilitaries to destroy leftist rebel groups<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And he still wields considerable power over conservative politics in Colombia, playing kingmaker in the selection of new party leaders.<\/p>\n

He was found guilty of asking rightwing paramilitaries to lie about their alleged links to him.<\/p>\n

A judge on Monday found him guilty on two charges: interfering with witnesses and \u201cprocedural fraud\u201d.<\/p>\n

Uribe insists he is innocent and said he would appeal the ruling.<\/p>\n

A law-and-order hardliner, Uribe was a close ally of the United States and retains ties to the American right.<\/p>\n

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, earlier decried Uribe\u2019s prosecution, claiming, without providing evidence, that it represented \u201cthe weaponization of Colombia\u2019s judicial branch by radical judges\u201d.<\/p>\n

Recent opinion polls revealed Uribe to be the South American country\u2019s best-loved politician.<\/p>\n

In 2019, thousands protested in Medell\u00edn and the capital, Bogot\u00e1, when he was first indicted in the case.<\/p>\n

On Monday, a smaller group of followers gathered outside the court wearing masks fashioned after his image and chanting: \u201cUribe, innocent!\u201d<\/p>\n

The investigation against Uribe began in 2018 and has had numerous twists and turns, with several attorneys general seeking to close the case.<\/p>\n

It gained new impetus under the current attorney general, Luz Camargo, picked by the current president, Gustavo Petro \u2013 himself a former guerrilla and a political arch-foe of Uribe.<\/p>\n

More than 90 witnesses testified in the trial, which opened in May 2024.<\/p>\n

During the trial, prosecutors produced evidence of at least one ex-paramilitary fighter who said he was contacted by Uribe to change his story.<\/p>\n

The former president is also under investigation in other matters.<\/p>\n

He has testified before prosecutors in a preliminary investigation into a 1997 paramilitary massacre of farmers when he was governor of the western Antioquia department.<\/p>\n

A complaint has also been filed against him in Argentina, where universal jurisdiction allows for the prosecution of crimes committed anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n

That complaint stems from Uribe\u2019s alleged involvement in the more than 6,000 executions and forced disappearances of civilians by the Colombian military when he was president.<\/p>\n

Uribe insists his trial is a product of \u201cpolitical vengeance\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colombia\u2019s still-powerful former president \u00c1lvaro Uribe has been sentenced to 12 years of house arrest, capping a long…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-310321","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114955773999097716","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}