The Inter-American Court of Human Rights condemned Colombia for not
having protected a murdered human rights worker. The state must now pay his
family US$215 thousand compensation.
Human rights worker Jesús María Valle Jamillo was murdered in 1998 after denouncing the involvement of high ranked military personnel in the massacres of Al Aro and La Granja in Ituango, Antioquia.
The state is condemned because it failed to protect Valle, despite numerous death threats. In the aftermath of his murder, authorities also allowed delay in the investigation and prosecution of the case.
The court rejected NGOs’ accusation the government had been compromising the freedom of expression, the honor and the dignity of the murdered NGO, because then governor of Antioquia Álvaro Uribe called Valle an “enemy of the armed forces”. According to the court, that accusation can not be proved.
