A special Colombian court sentenced 12 former military officers to between five and eight years of reparation work for their involvement in 135 “false positive” deaths – killing civilians and then falsely reporting them as rebel fighters – between the years 2002 and 2005.
Thursday’s landmark ruling is the first time the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), Colombia’s transitional justice body, issued individual sentences against government security forces for crimes committed in the decades-long war with FARC rebels that ended in 2016.
Officers used the killings, which often targeted poor and disabled young people, to inflate their reputations and earn promotions during the bloody war against rebel groups, which the United States backed under Plan Colombia.
The crimes constitute one of eleven “macrocases” being investigated by the JEP, which was set up following the 2016 peace deal to investigate abuses by rebels, paramilitaries, and state security forces. Earlier this week, it introduced its first individual sanctions against FARC leaders.
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