Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe was sentenced Friday to 12 years of house arrest after being convicted of bribing witnesses and committing procedural fraud, making him the first Colombian head of state to be criminally convicted and sentenced.
Uribe was first found guilty on July 28 and, days later, Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia of Bogotá's 44th Criminal Court formally issued the sentence, finding Uribe guilty of two counts of procedural fraud and three counts of witness bribery. The lower court judge ruled that Uribe, through his former attorney Diego Cadena, tried to influence judicial proceedings by offering incentives to witnesses in exchange for false testimony.
