A member of Colombia’s largest rebel group, the FARC, claimed Sigifredo Lopez is innocent, reported local media Thursday.
Lopez is a former politician accused of aiding the FARC in orchestrating his own kidnapping in 2002, along with the capture of 11 other deputies from the western department of Valle de Cauca, who were killed in captivity five years later.
Demobilized guerrilla Reinaldo Valencia, alias “El Cabezon,” testified before prosecutors this week that Lopez had no involvement in the 2002 kidnapping, although he had made previous statements implicating the former politician in the crime.
According to Valencia, a lawyer offered him legal benefits, including asylum in Sweden, to say Lopez had participated in the kidnapping scandal.
“There is no shred of evidence that says that [he collaborated with the FARC]. We have all the evidence,” said Alfredo Montenegro, a lawyer representing Lopez.
Colombian network RCN Television released a video Tuesday of the primary evidence in the case against the former politician.
The video was found on the computer of FARC leader Guillermo Leon Saenz Vargas, alias “Alfonso Cano,” after he was killed by the Colombian military in November 2011. The footage shows a man, presumed to be Lopez, explaining to a group of guerrillas how to enter the the Valle del Cauca legislature facility where Lopez and the other deputies worked.
Voice recordings of Lopez will be sent to the FBI who have agreed to conduct an independent analysis of the footage to see if the voice of the man instructing the guerrillas matches with other audio recordings of Lopez.
Lopez said it is clear that God has a mission for him, which is to search for peace in Colombia and said he will continue to work with that goal in mind. “I love this country, I have roots here, and that’s why I haven’t left.”
He said the country will realize he is innocent and had absolutely no responsibility in the kidnapping and murder of his colleagues.
A final trial will take place on Friday to determine the legal status of the former politician.