Colombians everywhere were shocked by the decision of their country’s Supreme Court to place former president Álvaro Uribe Velez under house arrest. The order came as part of an ongoing investigation into charges of criminal fraud against the two-term president, who held office from 2002 to 2010 and still casts a long shadow over Colombian political life.

For more than a decade, Uribe has evaded calls from human rights organizations for him to be prosecuted on charges of colluding with right-wing paramilitary groups and even directly ordering atrocities against civilians, such as the 1997 El Aro Massacre. Now, Uribe is finally in the dock for allegedly bribing former paramilitaries who were set to be key witnesses in a lawsuit against one of his political adversaries.

The process that led to Uribe’s detention dates back to 2014 and the aftermath of a heated debate in Colombia’s national congress. Ex-paramilitaries testified that Uribe and his brother Santiago, also a right-wing politician, were directly involved in the formation of paramilitary groups in Antioquia, where Uribe had been governor before he became the country’s president. Uribe’s lawyers filed a case against Senator Iván Cepeda of the left-wing Alternative Democratic Pole, who had compiled these testimonies, accusing him of witness manipulation.