:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/VY2C753SJ5CSRONYAOPZN7QRIM.jpg "Colombian court grants provisional freedom to former paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso")
A Colombian judge ordered this Monday that the former paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancusoformer commander of United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), be released for a period “proof” of four years, although this depends on what the other courts in which he must appear order.
“The convicted postulate will be granted Salvatore Mancuso Gómez probation for a probationary period of four years“said the judge Luz Marina Zamora at the hearing in the special Justice and Peace jurisdiction in which it was decided whether the former paramilitary leader would be released.
LOOK HERE: Who is Salvatore Mancuso, the bloodthirsty former paramilitary leader who returned to Colombia as a peace manager
Mancuso, who was designated “peace manager”from the president Gustavo Pedro mediate with Gulf Clanheir group of CUA with which the Government tried to start dialogues that are currently frustrated, arrived last Tuesday at Bogotá in USAfrom where he was deported after serving time for drug trafficking.
Mancuso was investigated in Colombia for more than 75 thousand crimes, so his deportation to the country, which was suspended for almost four years due to the covid-19 pandemic after having served his sentence in 2020, was expected by his victims.
The former paramilitary leader was kept in prison The Pelourinhoof Bogotá, and was placed at the disposal of the judge executing Justice and Peace sentences (a special instance created by the law of the same name with which the AUC were demobilized), who summoned him to a hearing that began on Friday and culminated today, as well as the magistrate of Warranty Control in Barranquillawho are the competent authorities to make decisions about your freedom.
In this sense, the judge guaranteed that Mancuso’s release will depend on him not being required by other authorities.
That is why the former AUC commander will remain in prison until the Justice and Peace chambers of Barranquilla and Bogotá, with which he has outstanding accounts, decide his fate.
Mancuso’s criminal life
Mancuso laid down his arms in 2006, like most members of the AUC, the group responsible for the majority of homicides committed during the armed conflict, according to the Truth Commission.
His demobilization was carried out after negotiation with the government of the then president Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010), who extradited him in 2008 to U.S along with 13 other paramilitary leaders because they remained dedicated to drug trafficking.
MORE INFORMATION: Former paramilitary Salvatore Mancuso is imprisoned in Colombia after serving time in the USA.
In that country, Mancuso was sentenced in 2015 to 15 years and 10 months in prison for drug trafficking.
However, in March 2020, the American judge who sentenced him declared the sentence served, validating as part of his sentence the two years he was imprisoned in Colombia, as well as those he spent in prison in the United States awaiting trial.
As part of the AUC agreement with the Government, the paramilitaries took advantage of the Justice and Peace Law, which included maximum sentences of eight years in prison in exchange for collaboration in solving crimes.
Source: Elcomercio
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