COLOMBIA’S public prosecutor has requested a Supreme Court probe into allegations that former president Alvaro Uribe worked with and financed death squads.

Local media reported on Tuesday that Eduardo Montealegre Lynett had asked the court to investigate Mr Uribe’s tenure as Antioquia state governor from 1995-1997.

As governor, Mr Uribe set up armed militia groups to fight Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) guerillas under the Convivir (coexist) programme.

Convivir paramilitaries were implicated in several murders in 1996 and 1997.

The focus of any probe would be the 1997 El Aro massacre, in which paramilitaries supported by the army murdered 15 alleged Farc members, raped women and displaced a community of 900 people.

Former paramilitary United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) member Diego Fernando Murillo has testified that AUC leader Carlos Castano had ordered the attack in conjunction with Mr Uribe.

The former president, now a senator, opposed the recent peace deal with the Farc.