In Colombia, former President Alvaro Uribe has been found guilty of bribery and witness tampering.

This was reported by Euronews, Ukrinform reports.

The decision came after a nearly six-month trial in which prosecutors presented evidence that Uribe tried to influence witnesses who accused him of links to a paramilitary group.

Judge Sandra Heredia said there was enough evidence that Uribe conspired with a lawyer to convince three imprisoned former members of paramilitary groups to change their testimonies.

Uribe, 73, who was president from 2002 to 2010, faces up to 12 years in prison, but the sentence will be decided at a separate hearing.

The ex-president was not present at the court hearing because a warrant for his arrest had not been issued.

In 2012, Uribe filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court against Senator Ivan Cepeda, who had opened an investigation into his alleged ties to a paramilitary group. However, the Supreme Court unexpectedly dismissed the charges against Cepeda and instead opened an investigation against the former president in 2018.

Prosecutors accused Uribe of sending lawyers to meet with imprisoned former members of paramilitary groups and pressuring them to recant testimony given to Cepeda.

During the trial, Uribe denied trying to manipulate witnesses, but admitted that he had asked them for interviews in preparation for the trial and to verify testimony that was also used in the case of the murder of his brother Santiago Uribe, who was also accused of links to armed paramilitary groups.

Under Uribe's presidency, the Colombian army pushed Latin America's oldest leftist rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), into remote areas, forcing the group's leaders to hold peace talks that led to the disarmament of more than 13,000 fighters in 2016.

According to the Colombian Truth Commission, established in 2017, more than 6,400 civilians were executed by the Colombian army and identified as members of rebel groups by soldiers seeking promotions, with the peak of this phenomenon occurring during Uribe's rule.

received political asylum in Colombia.