Ex-president Uribe guilty of abuse of process, bribery of public official

A judge on Monday found former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe guilty of abuse of process and bribery of a public official in a years-long witness tampering case, making the right-wing politician the country’s first ex-president ever convicted at trial.
Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia is reading her decision aloud to the court. She found Uribe not guilty of a third charge, bribery.
The ruling, which can be appealed, is the latest decision in a hugely politicized case which has run for some 13 years.
Uribe, 73, and his supporters say the process is a persecution and that he is innocent, while his detractors have celebrated it as the deserved downfall for a man who has been repeatedly accused of close relationships with violent right-wing paramilitaries, but never convicted of any crime.
Each charge carries a jail sentence of between 6 and 12 years. Heredia is expected to sentence Uribe in a later hearing.