Álvaro Uribe has become the first former Colombian president to be convicted of a crime.
A court in Bogotá found the 73-year-old, who was president from 2002 to 2010, guilty of witness-tampering and a fraud charge.
He was convicted of attempting to bribe witnesses in a separate investigation into allegations that he had ties to right-wing paramilitaries, responsible for human rights abuses.
Each charge carries up to 12 years in prison. Uribe is expected to appeal the verdict, having always maintained his innocence.
Paramilitary groups emerged in Colombia in the 1980s with the stated goal of taking on poverty and marginalisation. They fought the Marxist-inspired guerrilla groups that had themselves battled the state two decades prior.
Many of the armed groups which developed in the standoff made an income from the cocaine trade. Violent and deadly fighting between them and with the state has produced lasting rivalries for trafficking routes and resources.
Uribe was praised by Washington for his hard-line approach to Farc rebels – but was a divisive politician whose critics say did little to improve the inequality and poverty in the country.
Farc signed a peace deal with Uribe’s successor in 2016 though violence from disarmed groups persists in Colombia.
—BBC
