Colombian ex-president Uribe found guilty of witness tampering

Colombia’s former president Álvaro Uribe has been found guilty of witness tampering and procedural fraud in a landmark trial on Monday, the first time a former head of state in the country has been convicted of a criminal offence.

Judge Sandra Heredia said during the more than 10-hour reading of the verdict that the Attorney General’s Office had proven his involvement in the crimes.

The ruling is not yet final, and Uribe’s legal team is expected to appeal. An appeals court must rule by mid-October or risk the case becoming statute-barred and dropped.

Uribe, 73, followed the proceedings online. Sentencing will be issued in a separate hearing. He faces up to eight years in prison, potentially under house arrest.

The former president was found guilty on two of three charges. A separate charge of simple bribery was dropped.

The case originates from proceedings that Uribe himself initiated more than a decade ago against left-wing senator Iván Cepeda, who had investigated Uribe’s alleged links to paramilitary groups.

The situation reversed in 2018 when Uribe himself was accused of having pressured former paramilitary prisoners to provide exculpatory testimony for him. The proceedings were repeatedly delayed, and it was not until 2024 that charges were brought against him.

Uribe, a conservative who served as president from 2002 to 2010, remains a divisive figure in Colombia. Supporters view him as a staunch defender of national security during a period of intense conflict with left-wing guerrilla groups. Critics, however, accuse him of human rights violations and maintaining close ties to paramilitary forces.

Colombia’s decades-long internal conflict among government forces, guerrillas, and right-wing paramilitaries has left an estimated 220,000 people dead and displaced millions.