Case Summary and Outcome

Facts

Decision Overview

The Public Prosecutor’s Office had to determine whether the crimes of kidnapping, torture, and sexual assault committed against Jineth Bedoya Lima could be considered to be crimes against humanity, thus lifting the statute of limitations for criminal proceedings.

In reaching its decision, the Public Prosecutor’s Office began by recalling the State’s general obligation to guarantee truth, justice, reparations, and guarantees of non-repetition of crimes against victims of gross human rights violations.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office then determined the context within which the crimes were committed and established that the crimes were directly related to Colombia’s internal armed conflict. The Public Prosecutor’s Office stated that in the context of an internal armed conflict, criminal law must be interpreted in light of instruments of international criminal law and international humanitarian law, particularly the guidelines of the International Committee of the Red Cross, manuals on the concept and scope of international humanitarian law, and case law of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Republic of Yugoslavia.

Then, the Public Prosecutor’s Office proceeded to determine whether the crimes committed against Jineth Bedoya met the required characteristics of crimes against humanity. It declared that there was evidence of grave human rights violations having taken place during Colombia’s internal conflict as part of a deliberate, widespread, and systematic attack against certain sectors of the civilian population, and in particular journalists. The Prosecutor’s Office emphasized that under international instruments torture and sexual violence committed in the context of an internal armed conflict constituted crimes against humanity.  Therefore, the Prosecutor’s Office declared that in this case it was permitted to apply the statutes of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. These statutes consider any series of inhumane acts, including intentional homicide, imprisonment, torture, forced disappearance, and sexual violence, committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against any member of the civilian population, both in times of war and peace as crimes against humanity.

Therefore, the Public Prosecutor concluded that although Colombian criminal law did not include crimes against humanity as a specific offense, this category of crimes was part of human rights treaties, international criminal law treaties, and related peremptory norms, which were domesticated in Colombian national legislation and the Constitution. On this point, the Public Prosecutor’s Office cited Supreme Court decisions that mandated domestic law to conform to the provisions of international treaties, even if the legislature has not yet domesticated the treaties into its national law. (Criminal Cassation Chamber, Ruling of May 3, 2010, Judge María del Rosario González de Lemos)

Furthermore, the Public Prosecutor’s Office outlined elements of what constituted crimes against humanity:

(a) it was an attack on the civilian population;

(b) the existence of a course of conduct was proven;

(c) it was shown that the attack was widespread or systematic; and

(d) the knowledge of the attack was demonstrated.

For the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the aforementioned conditions were met in the case of the journalist Jineth Bedoya:

• The journalist belonged to the civilian population, and thus required certain protections and could not be forced to become involved in the armed conflict. The Public Prosecutor’s Office also emphasized the importance of journalists’ work in informing society about issues of public interest and declared that journalists were the primary representatives of freedom of expression. Lastly, the Prosecutor stated that the criminal acts committed against Jineth Bedoya were acts of censorship that went against all principles of freedom of the press.
• The intent behind the attack on Jineth Bedoya was to silence her. To support this point, the Public Prosecutor’s Office highlighted that after the journalist was declared a target, other journalists in her newspaper were threatened. The Public Prosecutor’s Office also gave examples of general and frequent attacks of paramilitary groups on members of the media whose work the paramilitaries found to have gone against their goals. The Public Prosecutor’s Office declared that the paramilitary attacks on journalists were a method of warfare to silence the voices of those who dared to expose their atrocities and abuses to the public. Thus, the attack on Jineth Bedoya was not an isolated case but a part the illegal groups’ policies of attacking journalists to obstruct the exercise of freedom of press.
• On this point, the Prosecutor’s Office emphasized that the paramilitary group’s attack on Jineth Bedoya was part of systematic attacks on the civilian population, including journalists of El Espectador. Furthermore, the attack was part of what the Prosecutor’s Office called a “widespread attack” because it was committed by a paramilitary organization engaged in numerous criminal acts as a warning to other journalists covering atrocities committed by the paramilitaries to silence the voices of those who dared to expose their criminal actions to the public.
• According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the depositions of paramilitaries involved in the attack on Jineth Bedoya revealed the purpose behind threats and attacks on journalists of El Espectador – to stop the publication of articles that harmed criminal business deals that the paramilitaries were involved in while in jail. The Prosecutor also highlighted that there was proof that the plan to attack Jineth Bedoya was initiated and organized inside the high-security wing of the Modelo prison by two major members of paramilitary groups.

Therefore, the Public Prosecutor’s Office concluded that under Colombian criminal law it was possible to consider crimes like the ones committed against Jineth Bedoya as crimes against humanity, which immediately suspended the statute of limitations for criminal proceedings.