Three Colombian soldiers have been sentenced to 35 years each in prison for murdering civilians and falsely claiming they were left-wing guerrillas killed in action in order to artificially boost their success rate.
According to the Supreme Court, there was enough proof to conclude that Lieutenant Diomedes Rafael Carey and two soldiers, Luis Fernando Betancur and Santiago de Jesus Escuder, had executed two civilians, only to later claim they were members of the FARC’s 36th Front killed that were trying to commit a “terrorist attack,” wrote Colombian newspaper El Espectador.
The killings took place in the northwestern department of Antioquia.
Wednesday’s sentencing is the latest episode of the so-called “false positives-scandal,” in which some 3,500 Colombian state agents have been suspected of murdering civilians and reporting them as left-wing guerrillas in order to receive benefits and promotions for upping their enemy kill count.