Overview
- An appellate judge in Bogotá voided the August verdict after finding the recordings used as proof were illegal and citing flaws in the lower court’s methodology.
- The annulment lifts the 12‑year house‑arrest sentence that had made Álvaro Uribe the first former Colombian president convicted of a crime.
- Iván Cepeda, the senator who filed the original complaint, said he will seek a cassation review before Colombia’s Supreme Court.
- The ruling shifts the political terrain ahead of the 2026 election as Uribe’s allies claim momentum, while President Gustavo Petro sharply criticized the decision.
- Other cases naming Uribe remain under prosecutorial review, including probes into an alleged paramilitary group’s creation, multiple killings, and the murder of a human‑rights defender.