(IPYS/IFEX) – As part of its work monitoring press freedom in Colombia, IPYS has urgently requested that special vigilance be applied to the appeal proceedings in the cases of murdered journalists Amparo Lenor Jiménez Palleres and Guzmán Quintero Torres. This request was made to Solicitor General Edgardo Maya Villazón and Attorney General Luis Camilo Osorio. […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – As part of its work monitoring press freedom in Colombia, IPYS has urgently requested that special vigilance be applied to the appeal proceedings in the cases of murdered journalists Amparo Lenor Jiménez Palleres and Guzmán Quintero Torres. This request was made to Solicitor General Edgardo Maya Villazón and Attorney General Luis Camilo Osorio.
In the letter to the two offices, IPYS asks that the proceedings be supervised by both an attorney and a solicitor designate of the Supreme Court. These two individuals, IPYS states, must be in a position to intervene and support an appeal for annulment in the event that the second instance court confirms the January 2002 rulings by the Valledupar specialised criminal court judge.
In January, the Valledupar judge acquitted Libardo Prada Bayona, alleged to have assassinated Jiménez on 11 August 1998. Likewise, the judge ruled in favour of absolving Jorge Eliécer Espinel Velásquez and Rodolfo Nelson Rosado, alleged assassins of Quintero on 16 September 1999.
The case is now before the Valledupar Tribunal’s criminal chamber, at the second instance stage. The Solicitor General’s and Attorney General’s Offices appealed in the Jiménez case, while the Attorney General alone filed the appeal in the Quintero case.
Amparo Jiménez’s murder has been linked with her work as a correspondent for a number of television news programmes. There may also be a connection to her role as coordinator of the non-governmental organisation Redepaz and director of the Cesar department Reinsertion and Regional Peace Office (Oficina de Reinserción y Paz Regional). Her report on the violent eviction of peasants from a farm owned by former minister Carlos Marulanda stands out among the last few stories she worked on. The eviction was allegedly carried out by paramilitary groups.
The assassination of Quintero Torres, editor-in-chief of the daily “El Pilón”, has been linked to his investigations of murders and other atrocities committed by the National Army. These accusations were published in the articles titled, “Military killed two women”, “Military fires outside of firing range”, and “Four persons assassinated in Patillal and Río Seco”.
