A Colombian appeals court on Tuesday overturned the controversial conviction of conservative former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez on bribery and witness tampering charges.
A three-judge panel from the Bogotá Superior Tribunal led by Judge Manuel Merchán determined that the now-overturned August sentence against Uribe was marred with violations of the former president’s rights.
The panel fiercely criticized Judge Sandra Heredia, who convicted and sentenced Uribe, for presenting numerous errors and biases in her ruling and for omitting crucial tests and procedures throughout the irregular trial — including, but not limited to, the illegal circumstances in which one of the key pieces of “evidence” against Uribe was obtained.
Uribe, 73, is one of the most prominent conservative figures in Colombia, a two-time president between 2002 and 2010, and the leader of the conservative Democratic Center party. For over a decade, Uribe has been at the center of an extremely convoluted legal process that initially started with Uribe in 2012 at a time when he served as Senator. Uribe originally sued leftist lawmaker — and now presidential candidate hopeful — Iván Cepeda for allegedly looking for paramilitary members to testify against Uribe and link him to the purported creation of a paramilitary group in the 1990s on a ranch that belonged to Uribe’s family.
Rather than investigate Uribe’s claims, the Colombian Supreme Court dismissed the former president’s lawsuit in 2018 and instead opened a new case against Uribe on allegations of committing fraud and witness tampering in his original lawsuit against Cepeda.
In late July, Colombian Judge Sandra Heredia convicted Uribe on two abuse and bribery charges. Days later, in early August, the judge sentenced Uribe to 12 years’ house arrest. The controversial conviction of Uribe was widely condemned and criticized by conservatives worldwide. At the time, Secretary of State Marco Rubio denounced that the weaponization of Colombia’s judicial branch by radical judges “has now set a worrisome precedent.”
“Colombia’s justice has prevailed as former President Uribe is absolved after years of the political witch hunt against him and his family,” Sec. Rubio wrote on Tuesday following Uribe’s acquittal.
In accordance with Colombia’s legal system, Uribe’s defense team immediately started an appeal process against the controversial conviction, leading to Uribe’s acquittal on both charges on Tuesday. In late August, the Bogotá Superior Tribunal overturned a separate ruling that forced Uribe into house arrest during the appeal process.
Uribe, in his first public statement after the court overturned his conviction, thanked God, his lawyers, family, and others for the support received throughout the process. Uribe, who spoke from his residence in Rionegro, Antioquia, published a transcription of his statement on social media.
“Thank you to my fellow citizens and to so many people in the international community for your messages and, above all, for your prayers. I am grateful for the solidarity shown by so many comrades in arms,” Uribe said, and hoped that others who have suffered throughout the process are able to overcome their difficulties.
After delivering his statement, Uribe reportedly handed out empanadas to the journalists that had been at his residence since the early afternoon hours to cover the news. Uribe briefly conversed with the journalists and thanked them for the coverage of the case.
Senator Cepeda condemned the court’s ruling and announced on Tuesday that he will seek to appeal it at the Colombian Supreme Court. Jaime Granados, one of Uribe’s lawyers, spoke with Caracol Radio on Wednesday morning and described the ruling as a milestone in the history of Colombian criminal law and in terms of the use of justice for political purposes.
“The process has only two stages, which have already been completed. So, when someone, the appellant, goes to file an appeal with the Supreme Court of Justice, they have to prove that the second instance ruling committed serious errors, and if that happens, it’s not that they agree with the appeal, but rather that they admit it so that it can be studied,” Granados said.
Far-left President Gustavo Petro also condemned Uribe’s acquittal and, in a social media rant, claimed that the appeal “covers up the history of paramilitary governance in Colombia.” Petro, without evidence, claimed that President Donald Trump “allied” himself with Uribe and others to sanction and “coup” him.
Throughout a reportedly 2,000 paragraph-long document, the three-judge panel led by Judge Merchán found a litany of irregularities committed throughout the trial against Uribe and determined that there was no evidence of the alleged bribes offered by Uribe in exchange for testimonies against Senator Iván Cepeda that led the Supreme Court of Justice’s case against Uribe.
Merchán criticized that Judge Sandra Heredia deemed evidence “credible” that was not properly assessed and committed serious errors that violated Uribe’s rights throughout the trial. The court determined that a series of wiretapping recordings on Uribe’s phone in 2018 that were allegedly “ordered by mistake” and which were used as “evidence” against the former President constituted a violation of the former President’s right to privacy.
Following Uribe’s acquittal, members of the conservative Democratic Center party announced that they will ask Uribe to be the party’s vice presidential running mate for the upcoming 2026 elections.
“Álvaro Uribe will be a candidate for the Senate or most likely a candidate for the vice presidency. We will win again. We will put Colombia back on the path it deserves,” Conservative Senator María Fernanda Cabal reportedly said.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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