Colombia ex-president sentenced to 12 years of house arrest, document shows

BOGOTA: Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe will be sentenced on Friday to 12 years of house arrest for abuse of process and bribery of a public official, according to a document seen by Reuters and a source with knowledge of the matter.

Uribe was convicted of the two charges on Monday by Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia in a witness-tampering case that has run for about 13 years. He has always maintained his innocence.

The information, also published by local media, came hours ahead of the hearing where Heredia will read the sentence in court.

Uribe will be fined $578,000 in the case, the document showed.

The conviction made him the country’s first ex-president to ever be found guilty at trial and came less than a year before Colombia’s 2026 presidential election, in which several of Uribe’s allies and proteges are competing for top office.

It could also have implications for Colombia’s relationship with the US: Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week Uribe’s conviction is a “weaponization of Colombia’s judicial branch by radical judges” and analysts have said there could be cuts to US aid in response.

Uribe, 73, and his supporters have always said the process is a persecution, while his detractors have celebrated it as deserved comeuppance for a man who has been accused for decades of close ties with violent right-wing paramilitaries but never convicted of any crime until now.