Colombia’s Inspector General, Alejandro Ordoñez, said that he would take legal action against Supreme Court judges found to be meeting with and interviewing extradited paramilitaries leaders without the presence of the Inspector General’s agents.
Ordoñez said that he had not in the least changed his mind concerning these meetings, and said that he withdrew the possibility of sending members of the Criminal Division to supervise due to the total suspension of these activities.
Ordoñez insisted that the meetings exceeded regulatory limits and violated the due process of evidence and testimony in question, taken into account in preliminary inquiries being conducted by the Court against several practicants of parapolitics.
The discrepancy was manifested within the trial, based on the law, and diligence was not performed. This is why constitutional resources were not used to guarantee the rights of defendants in this issue,” the Inspector General told newspaper El Espectador.
He insisted that the position he has taken since then was not intended to create any type of stress but to respond to his constitutional duty of tending to the preservation of civil rights, even in the case of persons allegedly linked to criminal acts. He said that he would not prevent their access to due process.
“If at any other time, these interviews are conducted without the presence of the public prosecutor, I will [take corresponding action] … I will continue to defend due process and the rights of citizens, and I will use [the necessary means to do so],” Ordoñez said.
