A Colombian police investigator has admitted to tampering with data on the laptop computer used as evidence against two of the country’s highest profile political prisoners.
Ronald Coy, a police captain in the investigations branch of the national police, confirmed to the prosecutor in the trial of Liliany Obando that he had, according to the prosecutor’s question, “opened the information and manipulated it before it was submitted to the legal authorities”. Ms Obando’s defence lawyer is now pressed for the evidence to be ruled inadmissible.
Liliany Obando was arrested in August 2008 and accused of links to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas, after the authorities announced they had discovered evidence incriminating her and other critics of the government on a laptop belonging to senior FARC official Raul Reyes. The computer was seized in a Colombian military raid on a FARC camp in Ecuador in March 2008, during which Reyes was killed.
The revelation may embarrass the government of President Juan Manuel Santos, who was inaugurated last week. Files on the laptop have been used as evidence against Miguel Angel Beltran, arrested last May, as well as linking the FARC to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’ government.
Liam Craig-Best, secretary of Justice for Colombia said: “The fabrication of evidence and its use as an excuse to jail those who speak out against the regime has been going on for some time in Colombia.” He called for the new government to release political prisoners immediately.
