Bogota, Colombia – The former Colombian president, Álvaro Uibe, was sentenced to 12 years of residual residence on Friday to falsify and corruption in a historic case that seized the South American nation and tarnished the heritage of the strong conservative man.
The penalty, which, according to Uribe, will be on appeal, followed a trial of almost six months during which the prosecutors presented evidence that he tried to influence witnesses who accused the head of the law and the order of having links with a paramilitary group in the 1990s.
“Policy has prevailed over the law in the conviction,” said Uribe after Friday’s hearing.
Uribe, 73, denied any reprehensible act. He knew up to 12 years in prison after being sentenced on Monday.
His lawyer had asked the court to allow Uribe to stay free while he calls the verdict. J. Sandra Heredia said on Friday that she had not granted the Defense request because he would be “easy” for the former president to leave the country to “escape the imposed sanction”.
Heredia also prohibited Uibe from holding a public charge for eight years and inflicted a fine of about $ 776,000.
Before the conviction on Friday, Uibe posted on X that he was preparing arguments to support his call. He added that it is necessary to “think much more about the solution than to the problem” during personal crises.
The Court of Appeal will have until the beginning of October to make a decision, which one or the other of the parties could then contest before the Supreme Court of Colombia.
The former president reigned from 2002 to 2010 with strong support from the United States. He is a polarizing figure in Colombia, where many have attributed it for having saved the country to become a failed state, while others associate it with human rights violations and the rise of paramilitary groups in the 1990s.
Heredia said on Monday that she had seen enough evidence to determine that Uibe conspired with a lawyer to cajolate three former members of the paramilitary group, who were in prison, by modifying the testimonies they had provided to Ivan Cepeda, a left senator who had launched an investigation into the alibe of uribe to a paramilitary group.
Uibe in 2012 filed a defamation complaint against Cepeda at the Supreme Court. But in a twist, the high court in 2018 rejected the accusations against Cepeda and began to investigate Uribe.
Martha Peñuela Rosales, supporter of the Party of Uibe in the capital, Bogota, said that she had cried and prayed after hearing the penalty. “It is an unfair penalty. He deserves to be free, ”she said.
Meanwhile, Sergio Andrés Parra, who protested Uribe outside the courthouse, said that the 12 -year sentence was “sufficient” and, even if the former president appealed, “history has already condemned him”.
During the presidency of Uibe, the military of Colombia won some of its greatest victories on the battlefield against the oldest left insurrection in Latin America, pushing the revolutionary armed forces of Colombia in remote pockets and forcing the group’s leaders to peace talks that led to the disarmament of more than 13,000 fighters in 2016.
