Judge orders release of recently convicted ‘parapolitians’

A judge in the north of Colombia on Thursday ordered the release of two lawmakers who had been sentenced in January to seven and a half years in jail over links to paramilitary groups.

According to the judge in the city of Bucaramanga, home of former Senator Luis Alberto Gil and former Representative Alfonso Riaño, the two politicians have completed three quarters of their sentence.

Both Gil and Riaño were arrested in November 2008 for their ties to paramilitary organization AUC and have spent less than half of the sentence imposed less than two months ago.

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