A Spanish judge asked Colombian authorities for more evidence to support accusations that the FARC and ETA have been organizing workshops in Venezuela and Colombia.
Judge Eloy Velasco asked Colombia’s police to verify statements made before Spanish police by ETA members Juan Carlos Besance and Javier Atristain that they flew to Venezuela after being invited by a government official in that country. According to the judge there is no material evidence to support these testimonies, which were withdrawn by the suspects before court.
Velasco also requested that Spanish investigators be allowed to verify the validity of the computers found in the camp of FARC commander “Raul Reyes” in 2008, which are key evidence in the case. The judge asked the head of the technological investigations of the Colombian police to certify how information was retrieved from the laptops and say whether there is a chance the information was manipulated.
The defendants want Colombia to hand over testimony by anti-terrorism official Ronald Hayden, who had said before Colombian prosecutors that the computers contained no e-mails and admitted to illegally manipulating files on the computers in a case against a Colombian unionist accused of having ties to the FARC.
The judge asked Colombian authorities to report on how the computers were found, which persons were part of the chain of custody, all reports on the computers and possible manipulation of their content, and all judicial rulings involving the Reyes computers.