Former President of Colombia Alvaro Uribe, found guilty of seasoning witnesses

Alvaro Uribe became the first former President of Colombia, convicted of a crime.

The Bogota court found the 73-year-old, who was president from 2002 to 2010, guilty of forging witnesses and charges of fraud.

He was convicted of attempting to bribe witnesses in a separate investigation of allegations that he had relations with right paramilitary accessories responsible for human rights violations.

Each prosecution is up to 12 years in prison. Uribe is expected to appeal the sentence, always maintaining his innocence.

Uribe is best known for accumulating an aggressive offensive against the left -winged guerrilla group of the revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) during his term. He has always denied relationships with right paravah.

The former president was sitting, shaking his head when the sentence was read, AFP reported, in the trial that shows that more than 90 witnesses testify.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has condemned the court’s decision, accusing the country of judiciary of being armed.

“The only crime of the former president was tireless to fight and defend his homeland,” he wrote on the social media website, X.

The result comes more than a decade after Uribe was first charged in 2012.

At that time, he accused the left -wing senator Ivan Chepede of plotting against him. Uribe claims that Capeda wants to connect it falsely with right paramilitary groups involved in Colombia’s internal armed conflict.

But the country’s Supreme Court dismissed the former president’s claims against Cheapa, instead investigating Uribe for ties.

The former president was then accused of contacting ex -fighters and bribes to refuse to relate with the paramilitary groups – forged key witnesses.

Uribe said he wanted to persuade ex -fighters to tell the truth.

The paramilitary groups appeared in Colombia in the 1980s with the stated goal of assuming poverty and marginalization. They fought with Marxist -inspired guerrilla groups, who had struggled with the state for two decades before.

Many of the armed groups that have developed in opposition, income from cocaine trade. The violent and deadly battles between them and the state have created permanent rivalries for trafficking in routes and resources.

Uribe was praised by Washington for his firm approach to Farc rebels was a dividing politician whose critics claim he did not do a little to improve the country’s inequality and poverty.

The Farc signed a peace deal with Uribe’s heir in 2016, although the violence of disarmed groups continues in Colombia.