Colombia: Court rules 'FARC files' inadmissible

Colombian daily El Espectador reported on May 18 that the Colombian Supreme Court of Justice ruled the infamous “FARC files” as inadmissible evidence in court, as they were obtained illegally.

The ruling refers to supposed documents acquired from the laptops of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) leader Raul Reyes who was killed in the March 2008 Colombian military bombing raid of a guerrilla camp in Ecuador.

The immediate impact of the decision was the dismissal of charges against ex-parliamentarian Wilson Borja, accused of links to the FARC. But the ruling has far-reaching consequences for a number of others trials where prosecutors' cases were based on material from the laptops.

The ruling has added further weight to calls for the immediate release of independent journalist Joaquin Perez Becerra, detained by Colombian authorities after he was deported from Venezuela on April 25.

The trumped-up case against Becerra was based on emails and photos allegedly found on Reyes’ laptop.

Colombia Report noted that the court's decision was based on the fact that “the military officials who obtained the evidence were not authorized to gather evidence to be used in Colombian courts, because this falls under the responsibilities of the judicial police”.

Furthermore, “the validity of the content of what was found on the computers can also not be verified as the alleged emails were copied into Word documents without indication of sender or receiver, the country's highest court said”.

From GLW issue 880