International court convicts Colombia state for Palace of Justice Siege
International court convicts Colombia state for Palace of Justice Siege
Dec 10, 2014 posted by Adriaan Alsema
While Colombia’s Supreme Court is considering absolving a military commander convicted for disappearing 11 people in the 1985 military retake of the Palace of Justice, the Inter-American human rights court convicts the country for these disappearances.
According to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Court in Washington DC, plaintiffs successfully proved that “there existed a modus operandi aimed at the forced disappearance of persons held on suspicion of participating in the taking of the palace of justice or collaborating with the M-19? rebel group that stormed and occupied the building on November 6, 1985, one day before the army violently retook the building.
At the end of the double siege, more than a hundred people had been killed, including almost half of the 25 members of the Supreme Court. Eleven people, mostly cafeteria workers, disappeared after having been rescued from the building by the military.
The state crimes
According to the court, the disappeared persons had been “separated from other hostages, taken to military compounds and in some cases tortured and/or disappeared.”
“Under the command of military officials, the authorities severely altered the crime scene and committed several irregularities in the removal of bodies” to complicate criminal investigations into the alleged series of extrajudicial executions.
More:
http://colombiareports.co/international-human-rights-courts-convicts-colombia-state-palace-justice-siege/
