Historic case over bribery and witness tampering has gripped nation and soured conservative strongman’s legacy
An appeals court has overturned the conviction of the former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe for bribery and witness tampering in a historic case that gripped the South American country and tarnished the conservative strongman’s legacy.
Uribe, 73, has denied any wrongdoing. He was sentenced to 12 years of house arrest in August following a nearly six-month trial in which prosecutors presented evidence that he attempted to influence witnesses who accused the law-and-order leader of having links to a paramilitary group in the 1990s.
But an appeals court on Tuesday said the conviction had “structural deficiencies”, used vague premises and lacked comprehensive analysis.
Uribe, who governed from 2002 to 2010, has called his conviction political persecution, claiming that the judge was biased against him. In the appeal, his lawyers questioned the validity of the evidence and argued that the former president’s responsibility had not been “unequivocally” proven.
