Colombia ex-president acquitted in witness tampering case, senator to appeal
Bogota, Colombia - A Colombian court on Tuesday struck down former President Alvaro Uribe's convictions for fraud and bribery in a lengthy legal saga over alleged witness tampering that could have resulted in him serving 12 years of house arrest, but a senator involved said he would appeal, which could take the case up to the Supreme Court on Monday, Oct. 21.
Uribe, who led Colombia's executive branch from 2002 to 2010, was sentenced in early August, making him Colombia's first-ever former president to be criminally convicted.
The three-magistrate panel ruled in a decision read by Magistrate Manuel Antonio Merchan that the evidence cited by the judge who sentenced Uribe was not sufficiently strong or legally valid to merit the conviction.
"Bogota's Supreme Tribunal is repeating history, contradicting the Supreme Court of Justice and affirming that a judicial interception carried out by a magistrate of the Supreme Court against a criminal, where the voice of Uribe appears, is private," current President Gustavo Petro said on X.
"That's how you hide the history of paramilitary governance in Colombia," added Petro, who rose to prominence as a senator by exposing links between paramilitaries and politicians.
Uribe has always maintained his innocence, calling the case a political persecution. The tribunal in August suspended immediate enforcement of the house arrest until this appeal was decided.
The case against the former president revolves around allegations that he ordered a lawyer to bribe jailed paramilitaries to discredit claims he had ties to their organizations.
The paramilitaries, funded by cattle ranchers, landowners and merchants to protect themselves from leftist guerrillas, are estimated by a truth commission to be responsible for nearly half of more than 450,000 people killed in Colombia's conflict between 1985 and 2018.
'We will persevere'
Uribe in 2012 accused leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda of manipulating jailed ex-paramilitary members to link him to the groups, but the Supreme Court found no wrongdoing by Cepeda and turned the tables, saying it was Uribe who had pressured witnesses.
Cepeda said he would appeal Tuesday's ruling, meaning the case could go up to Colombia's highest court and extend the already 13-year-long legal proceedings.
In a video on social media, Cepeda said a majority of the judges had chosen to ignore a conclusive body of evidence.
"We will continue to work so the truth comes out in this case as well as others in which Alvaro Uribe is responsible for very serious acts," he said. "We will persevere."
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had shortly after the initial guilty verdict said Uribe was a victim of a "weaponization" of Colombian judges, prompting Petro to call for respect for the independence of the judiciary.
"Colombia's justice has prevailed as former President Uribe is absolved after years of the political witch hunt against him and his family," Rubio said on X after the ruling.
Petro is feuding with the Trump administration, which has threatened tariffs against the South American nation over accusations of involvement in drug trafficking.
US President Donald Trump earlier this year raised tariffs on Brazil over its conviction of political ally Jair Bolsonaro for plotting a coup.
The US is Colombia's top export destination.
Political campaigns will soon begin for next year's presidential and legislative elections, in which several of Uribe's allies will compete to succeed Petro, who cannot run again for president.
Cepeda, an advocate for victims of state violence, is among those vying to stand for president on behalf of the ruling leftist coalition.
Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta and Julia Symmes Cobb in Bogota; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Richard Chang and Matthew Lewis
