Mr. Uribe, a towering figure in Colombian politics, was accused of trying to bribe a former paramilitary to retract testimony damaging to him.

I t took Judge Sandra Heredia over ten hours on July 28th to read her judgment in the case against Álvaro Uribe, Colombia’s president from 2002 to 2010. Her verdict, when it came, was that he was guilty of arranging the bribing of witnesses and of perverting justice.

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.