A Colombian judge on Friday overturned the international arrest warrant against the country’s ex-peace commissioner, Luis Carlos Restrepo, issued for his alleged role in the 2006 false demobilization of a non-existent FARC front.
Restrepo was accused of working with a drug trafficker and a former guerrilla to pay a group of homeless people to train and act like guerrillas before surrendering to authorities — but Friday a Bogota judge said there was “insufficient merit” to jail him while awaiting trial.
The former official faces charges of obstruction of justice, embezzlement, fraud, trafficking and the possession and manufacturing of weapons, which his defense strongly denied.
Restepo fled Colombia in January, just before his hearing before prosecutors in Bogota. It was believed he had gone to the United States, however his whereabouts have remained unknown.
The judge did request that ex-commissioner Restrepo return to Colombia. The government and national authorities have guaranteed security for the ex-commissioner upon arrival.
