A Colombian court on Tuesday acquitted former President Alvaro Uribe of fraud and bribery charges in a long-running case over alleged witness tampering that could have placed him under 12 years of house arrest .

However, a senator involved in the proceedings said he would appeal the decision, potentially sending the case to the Supreme Court.

Uribe, who led Colombia’s executive branch from 2002 to 2010, was sentenced in early August, making him Colombia’s first-ever former president to be criminally convicted.

No Valid Evidence

The three-magistrate panel ruled in a decision read by Magistrate Manuel Antonio Merchan that the evidence cited by the judge who sentenced Uribe was not sufficiently strong or legally valid to merit the conviction.

“Bogota’s Supreme Tribunal is repeating h

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