Defense lawyers of the Soacha ‘false positives’ suspects claim that
officials of Colombia’s Prosecution bribed members of the security
forces to testify against their clients, local media reported Monday.
Lorena Leal, the attorney of several detained soldiers in the ‘false positive’ case, said that “members of the military formally complained that officials of the Prosecution and the CTI [Technical Investigation] offered them money and other things to testify against soldiers who are linked to the case”.
The Prosecutor General’s Office denies the accusations. “We respect the exercise of defense, but reject this. It harms their clients. In contrary to using legal arguments, this is not part of any legal defense,” Prosecutor General Mario Iguaran responded Monday.
29 soldiers had already been charged for the forced disappearance and murder of eleven young men from Soacha to report them as guerrillas killed in combat. The Prosecution Monday filed charges against six more soldiers for the same crimes.