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Judi Lynn

(160,218 posts)
Thu Apr 17, 2014, 03:50 PM Apr 2014

Colombia held responsible for illegal DAS wiretapping

Colombia held responsible for illegal DAS wiretapping
Apr 4, 2014 posted by Steven Cohen

A court in central Colombia became the first to directly condemn the state for a 2008 illegal wiretapping conspiracy, in a ruling released Thursday. According to national media, the Administrative Tribunal of the central state of Cudinamarca ordered the Colombian government to pay nearly $200,000 to the family of former Supreme Court President Yesid Ramirez, one of the targets of the illicit domestic espionage.

“The utilization of information [gained from warrantless wiretapping] with the goal of denigrating the reputation of a public servant is illegal when the facts that supposedly led to the [wiretapping] have not been established in their appropriate penal form,” wrote Tribunal President Leonardo Torres in his decision, according to Caracol Radio.

The court mandated that the indemnisation be paid up front by the state, which would later be reimbursed by Jorge Alberto Lagos and Fernando Alonso Tavares, deputy directors of counterintelligence and intelligence, respectively, at the time of the wiretapping.

The ruling is the first to hold the national government directly accountable for the events that became known as the “Colombian Watergate.” In 2008, the now-defunct DAS intelligence agency was found to have been performing illegal surveillance on journalists, opposition politicians, human rights groups and Supreme Court justices investigating links between politicians and the demobilized AUC paramilitary block.

More:
http://colombiareports.co/colombia-held-responsible-illegal-das-wiretapping/#prettyPhoto

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