Colombia’s war crimes tribunal JEP agreed to assume pending criminal investigations against extradited former guerrilla chief “Simon Trinidad.”
In a press statement, the JEP said that it had assumed jurisdiction over five pending court cases against Trinidad, whose real name is Juvenal Palmera.
The JEP’s prosecution will additionally assume 116 investigations into crimes in which the 73-year-old economist and former “foreign minister” of the now-defunct guerrilla group FARC was allegedly involved.
Trinidad is serving a 60-year prison sentence in the United States for the FARC’s hostage taking of three American military contractors whose plane had crashed in guerrilla territory.
The US Government has so far refused to cooperate with the JEP over the former FARC leader’s alleged war crimes and request to be allowed into the transitional justice system.