FORMER Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was convicted of witness tampering and bribery on Monday in a historic trial that gripped the South American nation.

The ruling followed a nearly six-month trial in which prosecutors presented evidence that Mr Uribe had attempted to influence witnesses who accused the right-wing leader of having links to a paramilitary group in the 1990s.

Mr Uribe, 73, was not in court in Bogota, for the verdict as the judge has so far not ordered his arrest.

Mr Uribe faces up to 12 years in prison but sentencing will be delivered in a separate hearing. He is expected to appeal.

The former president, who governed from 2002 to 2010 with strong support from the United States, led a brutal military campaign against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) and other guerilla groups.

He has been accused of a series of human rights abuses, the most notorious of which being the “false positives” scandal — in which the military killed thousands of civilians between 2002 and 2008 and presented them as left-wing guerillas to inflate the conflict’s body count.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reacted to the ruling, as it became evident that the judge was going to find the former president guilty of bribery.

“Uribe’s only crime has been to tirelessly fight and defend his homeland,” Mr Rubio posted to social media on Monday.

“The weaponisation of Colombia’s judicial branch by radical judges has now set a worrisome precedent.”

Colombian President Gustavo Petro defended the ruling, saying that “a strong justice system” will enable Colombia to emerge from violence. He added in another message that Rubio was interfering with Colombia’s sovereignty.

“The world must respect the judges of Colombia,” Mr Petro wrote.