A judge presiding over a controversial murder case has been shot on her way to a municipal court in northern Colombia, El Tiempo reported on Tuesday.
The assassination occured at 8:00AM on Tuesday in front of the headquarters of a transport carrier in the town of Saravena in the Arauca department.
Judge Gloria Costanza Gaona was in charge of the case in which the army is suspected of brutally murdering three young siblings in October 2010 just 43 miles from where Costanza was killed.
60 members of the Army’s 5th Moblie Brigade were subsequently investigated for October’s killings with the police taking into custody army 2nd lieutenant Raul Muñoz Linares.
The Colombian government issued a statement condemning the judge’s murder and offering a reward of COP500 million ($270,000) for factual information. A high-level commission of inquiry has been created to investigate the murder.
Authorities are continuing their search for Coastanza’s murderers.