A Chilean activist who is wanted in Colombia for alleged ties to the FARC has denied that he provided financial assistance to the guerrilla group, Caracol reported on Wednesday.
Manuel Olate, who has acknowledged that he has contacted the FARC on three occasions, insists that he was only interviewing them to help find a political solution to the conflict in Colombia.
In response to the allegations that he was funding the Colombian guerrillas, Olate said: “Those are just the lies that the Colombian Government has been telling through the media for the past three years that they have not been able to prove”.
Chile’s Supreme Court recently denied a request for Olate’s extradition as the proceedings violated due process. An appeal to this decision is being arranged.
Olate is confident that after the new hearing the court again will reject the extradition request from the Colombian public ministry.
“I hope that Chilean Justice shall continue respecting my constitutional rights to free speech and my right to have ideas that do not necessarily fit in with the rest of humanity,” the Chilean stated.
Olate has previously appeared in photographs alongside ‘Raul Reyes’ four days before the guerrilla was killed in 2008. Reyes was second in command of the FARC.
