Colombia’s still-powerful former president Álvaro Uribe has been sentenced to 12 years of house arrest, capping a long and contentious career that defined the country’s politics for a generation. Uribe, aged 73, received the maximum possible sentence after being found guilty of witness tampering. The lengthy house arrest, which is due to be publicly announced on Friday, marks the first time in Colombia’s history that a former president has been convicted of a crime and sentenced.
Uribe led Colombia from 2002 to 2010 and helmed a relentless military campaign against drug cartels and the Farc guerrilla army. He remains popular in Colombia, despite being accused by critics of working with armed rightwing paramilitaries to destroy leftist rebel groups. He was found guilty of asking rightwing paramilitaries to lie about their alleged links to him.
The former president is also under investigation in other matters. 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. A complaint stemming from his alleged involvement in the more than 6,000 executions and forced disappearances of civilians by the Colombian military when he was president has also been filed in Argentina.
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