A Bogota court convicted a fixer of Colombia’s former President Alvaro Uribe for trying to bribe a key witness in investigations into the Uribe family’s ties to paramilitary groups.

According to Bogota judge Fabian Moreno, attorney Diego Cadena pressured a witness called Juan Guillermo Monsalve into retracting claims that Uribe and his brother Santiago helped create the Bloque Metro paramilitary group in 1996.

Monsalve and other former Bloque Metrio fighters have testified that their group was created at Guacharacas, the Uribe family estate in the east of the Antioquia province, in response to a guerrilla attack on the property.

The group that was formed at Guacharacas subsequently carried out more than 230 massacres and thousands of assassinations in an attempt to “cleanse” Antioquia of anyone deemed leftist.

In an attempt to make Monsalve’s testimony go away, Cadena visited the former paramilitary fighter in prison and offered him free legal services to seek judicial benefits in 2018.

Monsalve filmed Cadena’s visit and surrendered the recording to the Supreme Court, which was investigating Uribe’s attempts to manipulate witnesses at the time.

The evidence surrendered by the former paramilitary fighter was also key in the conviction of Uribe, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison earlier this month.

The former president used a team of lawyers, political allies and prisoners to obstruct investigations into his alleged responsibility in massacres that were carried out by the Bloque Metro and associated paramilitary groups between 1996 and 1997.

Uribe is additionally investigated for his alleged role in the 1998 assassination of a human rights defender who publicly denounced the former president for failing to protect civilians against the far-right terror campaign in Antioquia.

Uribe was one of the most vociferous supporters of private security firms that acted as front companies of the paramilitary groups that were operated by drug traffickers and “legitimate” businessmen alike.

The former president has consistently denied any direct links to these organizations.