Colombia’s State Council condemned state intelligence agency DAS on Tuesday for the 1994 abduction and murder of five former M-19 guerrillas.
The high court ordered the state to pay $233,600 and integral reparations out of court to the families of murdered M-19 rebels Julio Edgar Galvis Quimbay, Raul Gutierrez Guarin, Enan Rafael Lora Mendoza, Fredy Humberto Guerrero and Aide Malaver.
The DAS was ordered by the council to publish a public apology on their website and keep visible for at least six months.
DAS director Felipe Muñoz was ordered to give a public apology to the media and the agency as a whole was directed to take action against former detectives Martin Sierra D’German, Alvaro Yañez Ramirez and Vicente Cuellar Manrique Germain who were allegedly involved in the murders.
These detectives were reportedly ordered to pay an additional $87,600 to the families of the former guerrillas.
DAS detectives are said to have abducted five demobilized M-19 members between March 16 and 18, 1994, to question them about the kidnapping of Jane Roland Novoa, reported Caracol Radio. Their bodies, showing signs of torture, were found on March 20 in a municipality in the central department of Cundinamarca.
“In this case, although the victims represented a danger to society, for apparently being part of a kidnapping, they did not deserve to be objects of the death penalty given by DAS through its members,” said the head of the Council of State, Mauricio Fajardo.
The M-19 was one of Colombia’s leftist guerrilla groups until its demobilization in 1990.