Bogota’s superior court has overturned a judge’s order that former Colombia President Alvaro Uribe be held on house arrest while he appeals convictions for bribery of a public official and abuse of process, the court decision showed on Tuesday.
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Uribe was placed on house arrest this month by Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia, who sentenced him to 12 years in a long-running case about his connections to former right-wing paramilitaries.
Uribe has always maintained his innocence and is appealing the convictions, which he and his supporters have characterised as political persecution.
The court said it has ruled “to leave without effect” the order for house arrest “until the corresponding criminal court of this tribunal defines the recourse of appeal”.
The conviction made Uribe the country’s first ex-president to ever be found guilty at trial and came less than a year before Colombia’s 2026 presidential election, in which several of Uribe’s allies and proteges are competing for top office.
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Detractors of Uribe, 73, have celebrated his conviction as deserved comeuppance for a man who has been accused for decades of close ties with violent right-wing paramilitaries.