Supreme Court condemns members of the FARC negotiating team to 31 years in prison

[Bacchus4.0]

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The FARC, Colombia’s largest and oldest rebel group, was tried in absentia by the Court, which found leaders of its Front 43 guerrilla unit guilty of orchestrating a hotel bombing in the Meta department that left six dead and 20 injured in 2005.

Among those included in the decision are the FARC’s maximum commander, Rodrigo Londoño Echeverry (aka ‘Timochenko’), and Luciano Marin Arango (aka ‘Ivan Marquez’) and Jorge Torres Victoria (aka ‘Pablo Catatumbo’) of the FARC negotiating team in Havana.

The Court ordered the guilty parties pay a fine of over $600,000 and a sentence of 31 years in prison, reducing what was originally a 40-year sentence because it deemed terrorism and aggravated homicide as implicit, to a certain extent, in the act of declaring open rebellion against the Colombian Republic.

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One of the most hotly contested subjects in the public debate surrounding the talks has been immunity for high crimes committed by the FARC. The FARC is seeking a path toward reintegration into official society, but members of the military, for one, have demanded the FARC be held responsible for its actions, as high-ranking officials from the armed forces have been tried and convicted for various human rights violations, and are subjects of ongoing investigations or court cases.

http://colombiareports.co/supreme-court-condemns-members-farc-negotiating-team-31-years-prison/

[Bacchus4.0]

1. 218 FARC members convicted in abstentia for crimes against humanity

According to the Inter American Court on Human Rights, there are 218 members of the FARC convicted in absentia for crimes against humanity. Eight of them are members of the FARC Secretariat.

Colombia’s Constitutional Court said the State cannot allow, for any reason, that those who committed grave crimes — extrajudicial killings, torture, forced disappearances, and child recruitment — be given impunity.

Further, Fatou Bensouda, a prosecutor in the International Criminal Court, said, when referring to Colombia, that the grave crimes that matter to the international community — those that violate International Humanitarian Law — should not be left unpunished.

The government of President Santos proposes a referendum to decide the outcome of peace talks. But according to Colombian Attorney General Alejandro Ordoñez, “there cannot be a referendum” due to the FARC’s human rights convictions.

http://talkingaboutcolombia.com/2013/09/05/218-farc-members-8-of-them-secretariat-leaders-convicted-in-absentia-of-crimes-against-humanity/