Colombia's ex-president, Álvaro Uribe, sentenced to 12 years of home arrest

[ad_1] Colombian former President Álvaro Uribe has been sentenced to 12 years of home arrest for witness tampering and a fraud cost.

The 73-year-old is the primary former president within the nation's historical past to be convicted of against the law. He has additionally been barred from public workplace and fined $578,000 (£435,000).

Uribe, who maintains his innocence, instructed a choose in Bogotá he would enchantment towards his conviction. He mentioned the case was meant to "destroy a voice for the democratic opposition".

He was president from 2002-2010 and stays widespread in Colombia, regardless of being accused of working with right-wing paramilitaries to destroy leftist insurgent teams. A declare he denies.

The previous president was convicted of two costs on Monday in a witness-tampering case that has run for round 13 years.

Two jailed ex-paramilitaries gave proof saying Uribe's former lawyer Diego Cadena had supplied them cash to testify in Uribe's favour.

Cadena, who can also be going through costs, has denied the accusations and testified, together with a number of different ex-paramilitaries, on Uribe's behalf.

Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned Uribe's conviction, accusing Colombia's judiciary of being weaponised.

The previous president's "solely crime has been to tirelessly battle and defend his homeland," Rubio wrote on the social media website, X.

Paramilitary teams emerged in Colombia within the Nineteen Eighties with the said purpose of taking up poverty and marginalisation. They fought the Marxist-inspired guerrilla teams that had themselves battled the state twenty years prior.

Most of the armed teams which developed within the standoff made an revenue from the cocaine commerce. Lethal preventing between them and with the state has produced lasting rivalries for trafficking routes and sources.

Uribe was praised by Washington for his hard-line strategy to left-wing Farc rebels – however was a divisive politician, who critics say did little to sort out the inequality and poverty within the nation.