The former editor of an activist website linked to Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, the FARC, had his eight-year sentence overturned and has been released from prison, local media reported on Thursday.
A Bogota court overturned a 2012 ruling imposed on Joaquin Perez Becerra on the grounds that there was “no evidence found that demonstrated the responsibility of Perez in the crime of conspiracy,” according to Colombia’s Caracol Radio.
Perez spent two years in prison for allegedly promoting and building international relationships with left-wing organizations and terrorists for the FARC through the use of his website, Anncol.
MORE: Former editor of pro-FARC website sentenced to 8 years
Prior to his arrest on April 23, 2011, Perez was deported from Sweden where he had been operating since 1993, and brought first to Germany, then Venezuela, before finally arriving Colombia’s capital.
Perez, who was regarded as one of the main spokesmen for the FARC in Europe, always maintained his innocence and never accepted belonging to the FARC, according to Caracol.
The Colombian-born Swedish citizen was convicted of aggravated conspiracy at his trial in Bogota where the court found the journalist had promoted the ideology of the illegal armed guerrilla group and was also a player in its framework of international relations. The judgement however, absolved the journalist of financing terrorism.
