Overview
- The Special Jurisdiction for Peace found seven former commanders responsible for policies that led to roughly 21,396 kidnappings used for ransom and prisoner exchanges.
- Rodrigo Londoño (Timochenko), Pablo Catatumbo, Pastor Alape, Milton de Jesús Toncel, Jaime Parra, Julián Gallo, and Rodrigo Granda received the maximum alternative sanction allowed under the 2016 peace accord.
- The sentence mandates eight years of reparative work including searches for the disappeared, humanitarian demining, memory projects, and symbolic acts, enforced through movement restrictions, strict schedules, and electronic monitoring.
- Judges documented abuses such as chaining, caging, and sexual violence against captives, and the convicted leaders acknowledged failures to control their fighters.
- Victims’ groups and former hostage Ingrid Betancourt condemned the lack of prison time and economic compensation, and the tribunal is set to issue further decisions this week on alleged extrajudicial killings by security forces.