Álvaro Uribe: Colombian ex-leader released from house arrest

Colombia’s former President Álvaro Uribe has been freed from house arrest following a court ruling.

“Thank God,” Mr Uribe said in a tweet after the news was announced on Saturday.

Mr Uribe, who led the country from 2002 to 2010, is being investigated for witness tampering. He denies the charges against him.

Colombia’s Supreme Court ordered his detention under house arrest in August this year.

The Supreme Court investigation against Mr Uribe began in 2012, when the former president accused left-wing lawmaker Ivan Cepeda of orchestrating a plot to link him to right-wing paramilitary groups.

The court dismissed the charges against Mr Cepeda but said that it appeared Mr Uribe had threatened witnesses.

The order to place Mr Uribe under house arrest in August marked the first time that such measures had been used against a former Colombian president.

In August, Mr Uribe complained that being under house arrest “causes deep sadness for my wife, my family and for Colombians who still believe I have something good for my homeland”.

Mr Uribe’s record in Colombia is divisive.

Many view him as a hero whose hard-line stance brought an end to much of the violence carried out by guerrilla rebels in the country, who killed his father in 1983.

However, others say his military tactics led to mass human rights violations in 2016, which the former president has vocally opposed.

(BBC News)