High ranking Colombia military officials sentenced to 50 years for executing civilians
Source: Colombia Reports
High ranking Colombia military officials sentenced to 50 years for executing civilians
written by Holly Eustance August 17, 2016
An army colonel and a captain were sentenced to 50 years in prison this Tuesday for executing two men whose murders were later fraudulently filed as combat kills.
Such extrajudicial killings are part of a military scandal euphemistically called “false positives” in Colombia and implicates thousands of members of the security forces.
In order to receive pay bonuses, members of the armed forces would kill innocent civilians and then disguise the bodies as guerrilla fighters so they would count as combat kills.
Hundreds of soldiers have already been sentenced to prison for these mass killings, but the sentencing of military officials as high up in the hierarchy as the now-imprisoned colonel has been a rarity.
Read more: http://colombiareports.com/high-ranking-colombia-military-officials-sentenced-50-years-executing-civilians/