A court in Bogotá has annulled the bribery conviction of former President Álvaro Uribe, striking down a 12-year house arrest sentence handed down earlier in the year in a case involving alleged witness tampering.
Uribe, who governed from 2002 to 2010, became Colombia’s first ex-president ever convicted when he was found guilty in August on charges of fraud, bribery, and witness manipulation. His political defenders decried the trial as persecution, while others saw the convictions as a long-overdue accountability.
The appeals court’s decision clears the bribery count but leaves open the question of other counts, such as abuse of process. The ruling also paves the way for prosecutors, or victims in the case, to appeal to Colombia’s Supreme Court.
It remains unclear whether the individuals classified as victims in the original case will pursue an appeal of their own, which could push the case into Colombia’s highest court.
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At the heart of the case were allegations that Uribe directed a lawyer to bribe jailed paramilitaries so they would retract testimony linking him to paramilitary groups. Paramilitary groups, which in Colombia’s turbulent past have been implicated in grave human rights abuses, were linked to powerful local elites during decades of internal conflict.
Uribe’s legal team contested the evidence, arguing that the proofs presented did not establish his guilt unequivocally.
Uribe has consistently condemned the case as politically motivated, calling the legal proceedings an example of institutional distortion. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio previously claimed that Uribe was a victim of “weaponized” judicial systems, adding an international dimension to a case already resonant at home. Meanwhile, Colombia’s current President Gustavo Petro has called on Colombians to respect the independence of the judiciary.
This ruling comes amid a policy dispute, as the Trump administration has threatened tariffs against Colombia over alleged ties to drug trafficking, increasing the tensions between Bogotá and Washington.
With the bribery conviction annulled, the attention would shifts to whether other charges can stand and whether the original sentence will be reinstated or dismissed entirely. If the prosecutors or victims appeal, Colombia’s Supreme Court will serve as the arbiter of the case.