Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was sentenced by a judge on Friday to 12 years of house arrest for abuse of process and bribery of a public official, in a long-running case over connections to former right-wing paramilitaries.

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.

Heredia read the sentence to the court in an afternoon hearing on Friday. Uribe will be fined $578,000, Heredia’s ruling said, and barred from public office for more than eight years.

Cadena, who is also facing charges, has denied the accusations and testified, along with several other ex-paramilitaries, on Uribe’s behalf.

Each charge carried a potential sentence of six to 12 years.

Uribe, who was placed under house arrest for two months in 2020, is head of the powerful Democratic Center party and was a senator for years both before and after his presidency.

He has repeatedly emphasized that he extradited paramilitary leaders to the United States.

Colombia’s truth commission says paramilitary groups, which demobilized under deals with Uribe’s government, killed more than 205,000 people, nearly half of the 450,000 deaths recorded during the ongoing civil conflict.

Paramilitaries, along with guerrilla groups and members of the armed forces, also committed forced disappearances, sexual violence, displacement and other crimes.

Uribe joins a list of Latin American leaders who have been convicted and sometimes jailed, including Peru’s Alberto Fujimori, Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez and Panama’s Ricardo Martinelli.

Source: Reuters