Colombia’s Inspector General’s office has dismissed five soldiers for the extrajudicial killing of a FARC militant.
The soldiers, from the Army’s Ninth Brigade, have also been banned from public service for 20 years for the killing of John Jairo Cespedes Guzman in 2003.
According to witness testimony, Guzman was brutally killed after he handed himself in during a registration process near the town of Palermo, Huila department.
It was reported they visited him repeatedly throughout the day and night after his surrender. His body was found with hands tied and signs of torture.
The soldiers, who had formed a group entitled Los Panchos Cannibal Battalion, later claimed he had been killed in combat.
They have been named as Second Lieutenants Cesar Augusto Pena and John Carlos Guzman Acevado, First Corporal Gustavo Adolfo Mosquera Copete and Privates Francisco Javier Franco Franco and Henry Espitia Rojas.
