BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — An appeals court on Tuesday overturned the conviction of former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe for bribery and witness tampering for which he had been sentenced to 12 years of house arrest.

Uribe, 73, has denied any wrongdoing. He was sentenced in August following a nearly six-month trial in which prosecutors presented evidence that he attempted to influence witnesses who accused the law-and-order leader of having links to a paramilitary group in the 1990s.

The court on Tuesday said the conviction had “structural deficiencies,” used vague premises and lacked comprehensive analysis. Two of the three judges on the panel voted to overturn the conviction; the third thought it should be upheld.

Uribe, who governed from 2002 to 2010, has called his conviction politic

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