BOGOTA, May 25, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Colombian prosecutors on Friday formally charged Alvaro Uribe with bribing witnesses and fraud in the country's first criminal trial against a former president.

Uribe is accused of "offering cash or other benefits to selected witnesses of criminal acts so that they would lie to the truth" in a case that links him to paramilitary groups, according to a document presented by prosecutor Gilberto Villarreal during a virtual court hearing.