Six soldiers have been convicted of the extrajudicial killing of civilians in central Colombia and sentenced to between 28 and 54 years in prison.
By rejecting an appeal, the criminal chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice convicted a lieutenant, a major, and four other soldiers for the disappearance and death of Fair Leonardo Sierra Porras, who was murdered by the army and presented as a dead FARC guerrilla, reported Colombia’s El Espectador.
The soldiers were sentenced to between 28 and 54 years in prison after being found responsible for offenses of conspiracy, aggravated murder and forced disappearance.
Colombia’s so-called “false positives” scandal was centered around the extrajudicial killings of thousands of civilians by members of the armed forces who dressed their victims as guerrillas in order to present them as combat kills.
FACT SHEET: False Positives
The scandal was uncovered when prosecution investigators linked the bodies of unidentified rebel fighters found in the north of the country to people who had been reported missing in Soacha, a city south of the capital Bogota, in 2008.