Colombia’s Supreme Court denied a mistrial petition by the editor of a pro-FARC news site, local media reported Wednesday.
Joaquin Perez Becerra, director of Anncol, a website that regularly publishes FARC statements from its base in Sweden, was seized by Venezuelan authorities in April 2011 after an Interpol red warrant was issued against him for his alleged ties to Colombia’s largest guerrilla groups.
Perez filed a motion for a mistrial after some of the evidence against him was declared inadmissible in another case involving a suspected FARC member. Emails from the computer of slain FARC commander Raul Reyes suggest that Perez coordinated his articles with the rebel group, according to a June 2011 report by El Tiempo newspaper. In one email, Perez apologized for publishing information the commanders did not like, saying he was “only a subordinate of the FARC.”
The Supreme Court ruled last May that the Colombian Army officials who seized Reyes’ computer during a 2008 air raid on his Ecuadorian camp had not been authorized to gather evidence in another country. The Court denied Perez’s motion on the grounds that his attorneys should contest the evidence in a lower court.
But according to El Tiempo newspaper, the case against Perez rests on more than the illegally obtained “Raul Reyes” files. Police had been amassing evidence against Perez well before 2008, El Tiempo wrote– in 2002 alone, Perez traveled to Europe 12 times to fundraise for the FARC.
The prosecution will also rely on emails collected from the computer of deceased FARC leader Victor Suarez, El Colombiano newspaper reported.