Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe has been sentenced to 12 years of house arrest after being found guilty of witness tampering and bribery. Uribe was convicted of bribing imprisoned members of paramilitary groups to coax them into retracting damaging testimony exposing Uribe’s ties to right-wing paramilitary groups. Uribe was a close U.S. ally who ruled Colombia from 2002 to 2010.