Jorge Noguera, former director of Colombia’s intelligence agency
DAS, was called to trial Friday to respond to accusations of
homicide and allowing paramilitary organization AUC to infiltrate his
agency.
Noguera — already in jail awaiting trial — is suspected of ordering the murder of a Barranquilla university professor who the DAS accused of being a member of the FARC. The professor was murdered by paramilitaries in September 2004.
Likewise, the former DAS director is suspected of having orderd the murder of a union leader and a former congressman.
According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, there also is enough proof to convict Noguera for allowing members of the AUC infiltrate the intelligence agency between 2002 and 2004 when he was director of the entity.
Colombia’s Inspector General late April had urged the Prosecutor General to begin the trial, even though soms suspicions still need to be investigated.
The ex-director of the secret service already spent time in jail while
his case was pending in the Supreme Court, but was released because of
irregularities in the process.