Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe faces trial over an alleged conspiracy to bribe jailed criminals, according to Bloomberg.
The Attorney General’s office said in a statement Tuesday that the former leader will be charged with bribing witnesses and undermining the course of justice.
Uribe, the most powerful leader in Colombia’s recent history, is accused of sending intermediaries to jails to pressure ex-members of illegal armed groups into changing their testimonies against him and to instead smear opposition Senator Ivan Cepeda.
The case began when Uribe accused Cepeda, one of his biggest foes, of bribing jailed former paramilitaries to link him falsely to death squads. The nation’s top court investigated and found, in a 2018 ruling, that Cepeda hadn’t paid the paramilitaries and that people linked to Uribe had been manipulating witnesses.
Uribe, 71, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and claimed that he is the victim of political persecution. He governed the country from 2002 to 2010, and was noted for inflicting a series of defeats over the Marxist guerrillas who had overrun the country.
His record was stained, however, by a series of scandals and human rights abuses. Under pressure to show results, the army murdered thousands of civilians and tried to pass them off as guerrillas killed in combat.
