Overview

• A Bogotá court found Álvaro Uribe guilty of procedural fraud and witness bribery and handed him a 12-year house-arrest sentence.
• Uribe becomes the first former Colombian president ever criminally convicted.
• Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia also imposed roughly $820,000 in fines and barred him from public office for eight years and nine months.
• Uribe’s defense has appealed the verdict to the Tribunal Superior de Bogotá, which must rule by mid-October to prevent the case from lapsing.
• The sentence reverberates ahead of the 2026 elections and has prompted criticism from U.S. officials and regional conservative figures.