(FLIP/IFEX) – On 1 February 2002, Orlando Sierra, sub-director of “La Patria” newspaper, which is based in to the city of Manizales, was murdered. Five years later, the masterminds of the crime are still free. In September 2006, Ferney Tabasco González – director of the Liberal Party for the Caldas department and a former Congress […]
(FLIP/IFEX) – On 1 February 2002, Orlando Sierra, sub-director of “La Patria” newspaper, which is based in to the city of Manizales, was murdered. Five years later, the masterminds of the crime are still free.
In September 2006, Ferney Tabasco González – director of the Liberal Party for the Caldas department and a former Congress representative – was summoned for questioning. Tapasco González has been identified by several witnesses as the person behind the journalist’s murder. Sierra, in his column “Punto de Encuentro”, had repeatedly questioned Tapasco’s conduct as a public official. There are two other criminal investigations of the Liberal Party politician in progress in Caldas department. The prosecutor in charge of the investigation of Sierra’s murder told “La Patria” that there have been no new advances or decisions and that “the reports are being studied.”
After the 30 January 2002 shooting of Sierra, who died two days later, the investigation by the Prosecutor General’s office was notable for its slowness, despite the apparent conclusiveness of the evidence. Testimony from different people to the effect that Tapasco was the one who planned the murder was presented in 2003, but Tapasco was only called to testify three years later. This delay occurred despite the fact that, in 2003, the Attorney General’s Office (Procuraduría General de la Nación) had asked the Prosecutor’s General’s Office to review promptly the witnesses’ testimony, due to the gravity of the implications of their statements. In addition, two of the three witnesses were murdered, as were nine other people connected to the investigation. So far, nothing has resulted from the investigations of these murders.
In May 2005, Luis Miguel Tabares, alias “Tilín”, and Luis Arley Ortiz, alias “Pereque”, were found guilty of being the physical perpetrators of the murder, and sentenced to 28 years in prison. Luis Fernando Soto, who had actually been videotaped shooting Sierra twice in the head, was also found guilty, and sentenced to 19 years and six months in prison. After this ruling, the Attorney General’s office asked the Prosecutor General’s Office to more thoroughly investigate the matter of who had masterminded the murder.
FLIP calls upon the Prosecutor General’s Office to speed-up the investigation so that the masterminds of the crime are found guilty as soon as possible. Although the sentencing of the physical perpetrators of the crime was an important advance in the case, the justice system must be equally implacable with those who pay to have someone killed. The murder of a journalist is the gravest of press freedom violations.
