Colombia Thursday rejected the re-filing of charges by an Ecuadorian judge against presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos for his role in the 2008 cross-border attack on a FARC camp.
A Colombian Foreign Ministry press release stated that Colombia “does not recognize the extraterritorial Ecuadorian jurisdiction to investigate and try former and current Colombian officials.”
The ministry said that it will do everything in its power to defend the officials cited in the case, which also include armed forces commander Freddy Padilla and former army chief Mario Montoya.
Ecuadorian judge Francisco Revelo said the charges had been re-filed because the accused “were not notified by the prosecution,” which violates their right to defense.
Initial charges against the Colombian officials which were launched in 2009 but put on hold in February of this year, and permanently dropped Wednesday, because they didn’t follow formal procedures.
Santos was Colombia’s defense minister at the time of the cross-border bombing of a FARC camp in March 1 2008, which killed 25, including guerrilla “Raul Reyes” and an Ecuadorian citizen.
The incident led to the freezing of diplomatic relations between the neighboring Andean nations, with Ecuador claiming that Colombia had undermined its sovereignty.
The two nations began to work at restoring severed ties in September of last year.
A “Commission on Sensitive Subjects” was formed at at a heads of states’ meeting in Mexico in February, with the intention of addressing bones of contention between the two countries.
Ecuador has said that the restoration of diplomatic relations with Colombia is dependent on Colombian authorities providing more information on allegations of FARC activity within its borders, as well as handing over the Raul Reyes’ hard drives and other evidence allegedly found during the 2008 raid.
Colombia said that handing over the hard drives belonging to slain FARC leader is not possible, because the prosecutor general is using them as evidence.
