(FLIP/IFEX) – Francisco Antonio Tabares, alias “Tilín”, and Luís Arley Ortiz Orozco, alias “Pereque”, have been sentenced to 28 years in prison for their role in the assassination of journalist Orlando Sierra, deputy director of “La Patria” newspaper, in Manizales. SOURCE: Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP), Bogotá Tabares and Ortiz were found guilty of participating […]
(FLIP/IFEX) – Francisco Antonio Tabares, alias “Tilín”, and Luís Arley Ortiz Orozco, alias “Pereque”, have been sentenced to 28 years in prison for their role in the assassination of journalist Orlando Sierra, deputy director of “La Patria” newspaper, in Manizales.
SOURCE: Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP), Bogotá
Tabares and Ortiz were found guilty of participating in the organisation of Sierra’s murder, the first as the leader of the group of hired killers and the second as the person who provided the weapon to Luís Fernando Soto Zapata, who shot Sierra. Soto was sentenced to 19 years and six months in prison for murdering the journalist.
However, the investigation to identify the masterminds behind Sierra’s murder continues. The judge for the case, Néstor Fabián Betancourth, told local press that the names of possible masterminds have been mentioned in the course of the trial, but formal legal proceedings against them have not yet begun because of a lack of evidence linking them directly to the murder.
In the sentence’s sixth paragraph the judge asks the Prosecutor General’s Office to investigate who ordered the crime, “as the Inspector General’s Office requested.” The latter had requested that Ferney Tapasco González, the president of the executive of the Caldas departmental section of the Liberal Party, be investigated for the crime.
A year ago, “El Tiempo” newspaper, in the framework of “Proyecto Manizales” (a coalition of local and national media investigating Sierra’s murder), revealed that at least six people under investigation for alleged ties to Sierra’s assassination had been murdered, apparently in connection with it.
Sierra was shot in the head twice by Soto as he was entering the newspaper’s premises on 20 January 2002. He died two days later. He was well known for his opinion column Punto de Encuentro, in which he criticised public corruption in the department of Caldas.
FLIP considers this sentencing a step forward in clarifying the events that ended Sierra’s life. However, it calls upon the Prosecutor General’s Office to continue investigating the case in order to identify, arrest and sentence the masterminds behind the crime.
