A court in Colombia sentenced conservative former President of Colombia Álvaro Uribe Vélez over the weekend to 12 years of house arrest on charges of abuse of procedure and bribery of a public official.

Additionally, Uribe was banned from holding public office for 100 months and 20 days. He must also pay the Colombian state a fine equivalent to 2,420 minimum wages, which translates to over 3.4 billion Colombian pesos (roughly $840,000).

Colombian Judge Sandra Heredia read the sentence on Friday, days after the judge found Uribe guilty of two out of three charges that the former president stood accused of throughout a highly convoluted and lengthy trial process that Colombian politicians and several senior U.S. government members denounced as a sham.

Judge Heredia repor

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