Sawt Falasteen - Colombia awaits ruling on ex-president Uribe's house arrest

A judge in August handed the 73-year-old the maximum sentence for bribery and procedural fraud, in a case that made him the first ex-president in the country's history to be convicted.

According to the initial ruling, the right-wing leader coerced jailed paramilitaries to distance him from their organization.

The paramilitary group had been behind massacres, disappearances and other atrocities during Colombia's long and brutal armed conflict.

Uribe remains popular for his hardline offensive against guerrillas during two consecutive terms in office.

However, authorities documented serious human rights violations during that period, including the killing of thousands of civilians by the army.

Uribe spent about 20 days under house arrest before being released by order of a Bogota court.

His defense appealed the sentence, and the same panel must now decide whether to uphold it -- with or without changes -- or overturn it.

The high-profile trial began in 2018, when the Supreme Court opened an investigation into Uribe's alleged paramilitary links following accusations by leftist senator and presidential hopeful Ivan Cepeda.

Former paramilitary Juan Guillermo Monsalve became a key witness after claiming that Uribe's lawyer tried to bribe him.

Attorney Diego Cadena allegedly offered Monsalve benefits in exchange for changing his testimony, but Monsalve recorded the meeting with a hidden camera in his watch.

Cadena was sentenced to seven years of house arrest for bribery in the same scheme.

Uribe has always denied ties to paramilitaries, insisting the case is a political persecution by the left, now in power under President Gustavo Petro.

His name also appears in at least three other investigations into the creation and financing of a paramilitary group, several massacres and the killing of a human rights defender.

All are in the hands of the Colombian prosecutor's office.

If the conviction is upheld, Uribe's legal team can seek a Supreme Court review -- a process that could take months or years.

Q.Najjar--SF-PST