Colombia court docket overturns former president Uribe’s witness tampering conviction

[ad_1] A Colombian court docket on Tuesday overturned the witness tampering conviction of influential ex-president Alvaro Uribe, who had been sentenced to 12 years' home arrest in a call condemned by the US.

The 73-year-old, who led a relentless navy marketing campaign towards drug cartels and leftist guerrillas as president from 2002 to 2010, was discovered responsible in August of asking right-wing paramilitaries to lie about their alleged hyperlinks to him.

It marked the primary time in Colombia's historical past {that a} former president was convicted of a criminal offense and sentenced.

A law-and-order hardliner, Uribe was an in depth ally of the US and retains shut ties to the American proper.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had slammed his conviction as "the weaponisation of Colombia's judicial department by radical judges."

On Tuesday, Rubio welcomed the reversal, saying: "Colombia's justice has prevailed as former President Uribe is absolved after years of the political witch hunt towards him and his household."

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'Vengeance' From his residence in Rionegro, about 30 km (18.5 miles) from Medellin, Uribe made a quick assertion to the press, wherein he thanked God and his attorneys.

"All I can let you know is that I instructed the reality," stated the previous president.

Uribe stays well-loved in Colombian right-wing circles for his campaigns towards the now-disarmed FARC guerrilla military, however allegations of rights abuses have dented his reputation in some quarters.

Paramilitary teams emerged in Colombia within the Eighties to battle Marxist guerrillas that had taken up arms towards the state.

A plethora of armed teams that emerged adopted cocaine as their foremost supply of earnings -- the genesis of a lethal rivalry for sources and trafficking routes that continues to today.

After leftist senator Ivan Cepeda accused him of ties with paramilitary teams answerable for human rights violations, Uribe is alleged to have contacted jailed ex-fighters to lie for him.

He denies the claims, however was discovered responsible on two fees: interfering with witnesses and "procedural fraud."

On Tuesday, an appeals chamber discovered there had been inadequate proof towards Uribe, that wiretaps used within the trial had been illegally performed, and that the trial choose had dedicated errors of "methodology."

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Cepeda, a presidential hopeful in elections subsequent 12 months, stated Tuesday he would file a counter attraction to Colombia's Supreme Courtroom of Justice.

Uribe can also be beneath investigation in different issues.

He has testified earlier than prosecutors in a preliminary probe right into a 1997 paramilitary bloodbath of farmers when he was governor of the western Antioquia division.

A grievance has additionally been filed towards him in Argentina, the place common jurisdiction permits for the prosecution of crimes dedicated anyplace on the earth.

That grievance stems from Uribe's alleged involvement within the greater than 6,000 executions and compelled disappearances of civilians by the navy when he was president.

Uribe insists his trial is a product of "political vengeance" with Colombia beneath its first-ever leftist president, Gustavo Petro.

"That is how the historical past of paramilitary governance in Colombia is roofed up, that's, the historical past of politicians who got here to energy allied with drug trafficking," Petro wrote on X after Tuesday's ruling.

Petro added that Uribe ally US President Donald Trump, with whom the Colombian chief has been engaged in a heated public spat on quite a lot of subjects, will now "search sanctions" towards him.