BOGOTA, Colombia — A brother of former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe was sentenced Tuesday to 28 years in prison for his alleged role in an illegal paramilitary group linked to hundreds of killings during the peak of Colombia’s civil war.

Prosecutors said that in the 1990s Santiago Uribe backed a group known as The 12 Apostles, which has been linked to at least 300 slayings and dozens of forced disappearances.

The group was set up to protect ranchers in Colombia’s Antioquia province from attacks by left-wing guerrillas who kidnapped and extorted business owners, including Uribe’s father, who was murdered in 1983 during a botched kidnapping attempt.

Santiago Uribe, now 68 and a horse breeder, has denied ties to criminal organizations.

On Tuesday he was found guilty of murder and aggr

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