Colombia’s transitional justice system has received the case files of 12,000 alleged military war criminals, the transitional justice body announced on Tuesday.
According to the justice system’s executive secretary, some 4,500 jailed soldiers have requested to be included in the transitional justice system that would allow them to leave prison while awaiting a new trial.
Additionally, the Defense Ministry has sent another 7,494 case files of members of the military either convicted or investigated on war crime charges, the executive secretary said in a press release.
Colombia’s State Council earlier that day have the transitional justice system three weeks to begin excarcerating the 4,500 soldiers who have requested to be let out of prison while awaiting a new trial.
However, the sheer number of convicted and suspected war criminals in the military is making this deadline is “substantial and complex, requiring a delicate in-depth examination.”
Additionally, the transitional justice system is running into legal issues in the case of the more than 4,000 extrajudicial executions carried out by the military under former President Alvaro Uribe as the killings “have been qualified in different ways by the prosecutors and judges of the Republic.”
The changing jurisprudence and uncertain legislation is recognized as a factor of complexity by the Inter-American Court for Human Rights.
Executive secretary of Colombia’s transitional justice system
Moreover, verifying whether crimes committed by applicants are war crimes is a logistical nightmare making the State Council deadline “difficult to meet under the current circumstances.”
The 15-day period established by the Council of State to analyze in depth the nexus of crimes with the internal armed conflict, to travel throughout the country to sign the subscribe the deeds and send out the corresponding communications is difficult to meet under the current conditions.
Executive secretary of Colombia’s transitional justice system
The transitional justice system was approved earlier this year and is currently in the phase of picking the judges and international assistant judges.
This process is expected to be over in October after which the transitional justice tribunal and truth commission that are part of the transitional system can take force.
The system is expected to provide justice for the approximately 8 million war victims left by the country’s 52 armed conflict between the Marxist FARC guerrilla group and the Colombian state.
