15 soldiers found guilty of 10 anti-narcotics policemen murder
Breaking newsBy Julián Ortega Martínez
Monday 18 February 2008 12:09 COT
Judge Edmundo López declared 15 soldiers, including lieutenant colonel Byron Carvajal, guilty of the so-called Jamundí massacre, when 10 elite US-trained anti-narcotics policemen and one civilian were murdered in the town of the same name on 22 May 2006.
The verdict read by López on Monday states that Carvajal and the other 14 soldiers perpetrated the crime with premeditation, thus contesting the argument of the defence, which claimed it was a "friendly fire" case, as Commander of the Army Gen. Mario Montoya described at the time. The case was initially assigned to the military justice system, but after a huge controversy and President Álvaro Uribe’s intervention, it went back to civilian courts. Carvajal was convicted as the crime perpetrator, while the 14 other soldiers were declared his accomplices.
The policemen were shot by the army patrol from a hill near a psychiatric home in Jamundí, southwestern Valle del Cauca Department, where they were intended to search cocaine possibly hidden inside the house. Attorney General Mario Iguarán said in the wake of the massacre the soldiers "were doing the bidding of a drug trafficker."
The sentence was due to be declared within two weeks, but the new audience to be held in Cali’s Palace of Justice was moved for 21 April.
[Updated 19.02.2008 15:56 COT]
Tags: anti-narcotics police, Byron Carvajal, Cali, Colombia, Colombia National Army, Colombia National Police, crime and law, Jamundí, Jamundí massacre, Valle del Cauca
