False testimony from alleged victims are damaging Colombia, according to Colombia’s Minister of the Interior.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IAHCR) rejected the Colombian government’s appeal on Thursday, which challenged the IAHCR’s original ruling that ordered the government pay $8 million in victims compensation for a 1997 massacre in Mapiripan.
Yet according to Interior Minister Fernando Carrillo, there was a silver lining in the court’s decision: identifying the problem of false testimony.
“I would say that something very positive was achieved…in Colombia…it is…necessary to stop this tendency of false witnesses,” said Carrillo.
The IAHCR reportedly threw out six plaintiffs who were trying to “illegally…enrich themselves” and were therefore not entitled to “financial rewards from the Colombian State,” reported Santa Fe Radio.
The Interior Minister praised the court for recognizing the existence of “false victims cartels” who are allegedly “bleeding the nation.”
The Mapiripan “false victims” scandal broke when one of the witnesses confessed that her husband had not actually been killed in the massacre committed by the AUC and the Colombian armed forces in 1997.
The government’s reaction mirrors last year’s statements where they argued that the government must not pay people who falsely claim to be victims of government abuse.