The prosecution of Colombia’s war crimes tribunal JEP formally charged retired army Colonel Publio Hernan Mejia with 72 extrajudicial executions carried out under his command.
According to the prosecution, Meija and his subordinates teamed up with the now-defunct paramilitary organization AUC to murder civilians and fraudulently present their victims as combat kills “to consolidate the image of being the best officer of the National Army.”
The extrajudicial executions took place in the region around the northern city of Valledupar between December 2001 and November 2003.
Publio Hernan Mejia Gutierrez devised, designed and executed through an Illegal Organized Apparatus of Power a criminal plan that consisted of murdering civilians and presenting them as casualties in combat, motivated by giving society a false perception of security and with which he sought to consolidate the image of being the best officer of the National Army.
Investigation and Accusation Unit of the JEP
Mejia, who was twice deemed “The Best Soldier of the Americas,” had already been sentenced to 19 years in prison for his ties to the AUC, but was released on parole in 2017 after submitting to the JEP’s transitional justice system.
The retired colonel finds himself back in court and could be sentenced to 20 years in prison because he has refused to admit to crimes against humanity or repair his victims.
Mejia is the first convicted war criminal to face criminal charges before the JEP for refusing to collaborate with the transitional justice system.
The trial against the retired colonel is also the first in which victims are expected to testify against their former victimizer instead of participating in proceedings that seek to repair them.