The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) had filed a case against Colombia before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for failing to prosecute a journalist’s attackers.
Colombian journalist
Luis Gonzalo “Richard” Velez Restrepo was attacked by soldiers on August 29, 1996, while filming members of the army beat demonstrators at a protest march,
according to a IACHR press release on Friday.
After the event, Velez and his family began receiving death threats which intensified further when Velez tried to promote the judicial process relating to the original attack.
Velez was eventually forced into exile after being the victim of a kidnap attempt on October 9, 1997.
No legal proceedings have been brought against the perpetrators of the attack and the subsequent harassment of Velez in Colombia. This led the IACHR to send the case to the Court on March 2, 2011, concluding that the Colombian state had failed to comply with any recommendations submitted by the Commission on how to deal with the matter.
The IACHR and the Court are both autonomous organizations of the Organization of American States (OAS).
