Colombia’s Supreme Court reiterated that the information found on the computers of FARC commander “Raul Reyes” cannot be used as evidence in any judicial trial because they were seized illegally, newspaper El Espectador reported Monday.
Inspector General Alejandro Ordoñez, challenged the ruling, passed in May, claiming that there was no legal objection to use the information drawn from the computers in court. However, his complaint was denied by the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court originally ruled that information obtained from the computers is inadmissible in court due to several factors. The computers were seized by military officials instead of the judicial police and the validity of the content on the computers could not be verified because information was copied into Word documents.
Furthermore, despite the existence of a bilateral agreement between Colombia and Ecuador regarding judicial matters, Ecuadorean authorities were not involved in the military operation, leading the Supreme Court to maintain the illegitimacy of the information.
The ruling confirms that the case against socialist Congressman Wilson Borja for links to the FARC was correctly suspended.
The computers were captured during a military raid on a FARC camp in Ecuadorean territory in March 2008 during which Reyes and 25 others were killed.