The former president of Colombia, Álvaro Uibe, sentenced to 12 years of house arrest

The former Colombian president Álvaro Uibe was sentenced to 12 years of assignment at home for falsification of witnesses and an accusation of fraud.

The 73 -year -old man is the first former president of the country’s history to be condemned for a crime. It was also excluded from the public service and sentenced to a fine of $ 578,000 (£ 435,000).

Uibe, who maintains his innocence, told a Bogotá judge that he would appeal to his conviction. He said that the case was supposed to “destroy a voice for democratic opposition”.

He was president of 2002 to 2010 and remains popular in Colombia, although he is accused of working with right -wing paramilitaries to destroy the rebel groups on the left. An assertion he denies.

The former president was found guilty of two charges on Monday in a case of falsifying witnesses which has been taking place for about 13 years.

Two imprisoned ex-paramilitaries testified saying that the former lawyer of Uibe, Diego Cadena, had offered them money to testify in favor of Uibe.

Cadena, who also faces accusations, denied the accusations and testified, as well as several other ex-paramilitaries, on behalf of Uibe.

Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned Uribe’s conviction, accusing Colombia’s judiciary of being armed.

The “only crime of the former president was to fight and defend his homeland tirelessly,” Rubio wrote on the social media site, X.

Paramilitary groups emerged in Colombia in the 1980s with the declared objective of taking poverty and marginalization. They fought the guerrilla groups inspired by the Marxist who had themselves fought the state two decades before.

Many armed groups that have developed in the dead end have carried out an income from the cocaine trade. Mortal fights between them and with the state have produced lasting rivalries for traffic and resources.

Uibe was congratulated by Washington for his hard approach to the rebels of the left Farc – but was a division politician, who, according to criticism, did not do much to fight against inequalities and poverty in the country.

Farc signed a peace agreement with the successor of Uibe in 2016, although the violence of disarmed groups persists in Colombia.