A retired Colombian Army lieutenant colonel was sentenced to 23 years and three months in prison Thursday for the extrajudicial execution of a farmer in north Colombia whose death was reported as a combat kill.
The Second Criminal Court of Sincelejo declared Lieutenant Colonel Luis Fernando Borja Aristizabal responsible for the death of a civilian who was presented as a guerilla killed in combat.
Borja Aristizabal was convicted of aggravated murder and falsifying a public document.
The victim, Angel Gabriel Berrio Vides, was executed on Feburary 17, 2008 in the village of La Ventura in the northern Colombian department of Sucre.
According to prosecutors and international observers, some 2,000 Colombians have been murdered by members of the armed forces to inflate the success of the State’s fight against illegal armed groups.