Colombia’s disgraced former Congresswoman Yidis Medina has been sentenced to 32 years for kidnapping, according to a press release from the Prosecutor General’s Office on Friday.
The court found Medina guilty of the aggravated kidnapping of municipal officials Ricardo Sequea and Juan Carlos Carvajal Torres in 2000, and sentenced her to 32 years with a fine of 300 statutory minimum wages.
The court ruled that the controversial politician co-authored the crime because she wanted to force the signing of a contract that favored a co-operative she represented. The officials were reportedly kidnapped by Marxist guerrilla group the ELN. Medina had pleaded not guilty to the charges.
“I did not order or participate in the kidnapping of two officials from the municipality of Barrancabermeja, because at the time of the events, I was kidnapped by the ELN,” said Medina during her trial.