BOGOTA – Colombia’s Supreme Court sentenced the former governor of the northern province of Sucre to 40 years in prison for ties to brutal right-wing militias and his role in a 2003 murder.

Salvador Arana Sus was serving as Colombia’s ambassador to Chile at the time of his indictment. He resigned the diplomatic post and disappeared, but authorities tracked him down in May 2008.

Arana was found guilty of having instigated the April 2003 assassination of the mayor of El Roble, Eudaldo Diaz.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was present at a security meeting weeks before the killing in which Diaz disclosed that he had received death threats.

Arana was among the first politicians to be caught up in the “parapolitica” scandal, which erupted in late 2007 with the revelation that scores of officeholders and officials had ties with the AUC militia federation, a group blamed for tens of thousands of deaths. EFE