The director of Colombia’s prison service Gustavo Ricaurte Tapia, confirmed during judicial proceedings Monday, that paramilitaries on their way to court visited a relative, after a group for victims of the State last week issued a public complaint.
Last August, according to the complaint, three ex-paramilitary chiefs “all convicted of multiple crimes such as crimes against humanity, including the murder of a former mayor…. for which they were sentenced to 40 years,” were “seen in the… company of INPEC (prison service) officials…. These people were visiting the home of one of their spouses.”
A police report confirmed the ex-paramilitaries were traveling to the city of Herrera to appear in court but were picked up in the house of a family member. The names of the INPEC members who helped them are mentioned in the report but have not been publicly disclosed.
The Movement for Victims of State Crimes said the “whole situation again violates the rights of victims to truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition, given that these people are linked with the commission of crimes against humanity.”
The group’s complaint asked if “the INPEC director general knows of these facts? What actions will he take to stop these things happening again?”
The group called for an investigation in to the incident as they said it violated their victims’ rights. “And we ask Investigator General Eduardo Montealegre the same questions, as these facts are grounds for expulsion from the Justice and Peace program.”
Although the police said that INPEC was informed, the prison service said that the case had not yet been discussed at a higher level and therefore the investigations have not yet been initiated.
