(IPYS/IFEX) – The criminal trial of those alleged to have been involved in the assassination of Colombian journalist and educator Nelson Carvajal Carvajal has taken a new direction. Carvajal Carvajal was killed on 16 April 1998, in the municipality of Pitalito, in the southern province of Huila. According to information obtained by IPYS’ correspondent in […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – The criminal trial of those alleged to have been involved in the assassination of Colombian journalist and educator Nelson Carvajal Carvajal has taken a new direction. Carvajal Carvajal was killed on 16 April 1998, in the municipality of Pitalito, in the southern province of Huila.
According to information obtained by IPYS’ correspondent in Colombia, on Monday 2 April 2001, the Office of the Bogotá Fourth Special Public Prosecutor appealed the 15 December 2000 decision issued by a first instance trial court, the Neiva Special Court, absolving the individuals accused of the crime.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office, which disagrees with the lower court’s decision, believes that there is sufficient and conclusive evidence to implicate Fernando Bermúdez Ardila as the mastermind of the crime, and Félix Trujillo Calderon and Alfaro Quintero Alvarado as the murderers.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office stated categorically that the assassination of Carvajal Carvajal – who died after being shot ten times at the entrance of Los Pinos School, where he was director – was not a retaliation by guerrillas of Unit 13 of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC). Instead, the office believes that the journalist was killed because of his steadfast condemnations of government corruption and fraud against the most vulnerable citizens, which were broadcast on the news programme Momento Regional.
Erleans de Jesús Peña Ossa will be the presiding justice of the Neiva Superior Court and will be accompanied by Justices Clemencia Perdomo de González and Yesid Ramírez Bastidas. These justices will either revoke or concur with the lower court’s decision.
At the same time, Bermúdez, who also does not agree with the trial court’s decision, has lodged his own appeal. “Even though they have acquitted me, their decision states that there is not sufficient proof to convict me in the crime against the journalist, and so my name is still tarnished. I am seeking a decision which leaves no doubt about my innocence,” said Bermúdez.
The Superior Court’s decision will be issued in four months.
Incidents of kidnapping and intimidation of journalists not only continue but have increased and there is a lack of guarantee of security for the exercise of the profession in Colombia.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to authorities:
– protesting the acquittal of Carvajal Carvajal’s alleged killers, and supporting the decision of the Public Prosecutor’s Office to appeal the trial court decision issued by the Neiva Special Court
Appeals To
APPEALS TO:
Andrés Pastrana Arango
President of the Republic
Carrera 8 No. 7-26, Bogotá
Fax: +571 336 21 09 / 286 79 37 / 286 74 34
E-mail: pastrana@presidencia.gov.co
Alfonso Gomez Méndez
Attorney General
Diagonal 22B No. 52-01
Fax: +571 570 20 00, ext. 1587
E-mail: contacto@fiscalia.gov.co
Senator Gabriel Zapata
President of the Senate Human Rights Commission
Carrera 7 No. 8-68, Oficina 707, edificio nuevo del Congreso
Fax: +571 350 1031
E-mail: zapatagei@senado.gov.co
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
