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.

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

A Colombian judge on Monday convicted former President Alvaro Uribe of abuse of process and bribery of a public official in a long-running witness tampering case, making him the country's first ex-president to ever be found guilty at trial.