Prosecutors ask 40 years in jail for retired colonel

Prosecutors Tuesday asked a Bogota judge to sentence retired colonel Luis Alfonso Plazas Vega to 40 years in jail for the disappearance of eleven civilians during the 1985 Palace of Justice siege.

According to the prosecution, there is enough evidence “showing that Plazas Vega was in control of the hostages that left the Palace of Justice alive and in majority were moved to the Cavalry School for interrigation.”

“It is a certain fact that Luis Alfonso had contact with the hostages, knows who were in the House of the Florero Museum and knows where these people are,” the prosecution continued.

The 1985 siege of the Palace of Justice in Bogota is one of the bloodiest events in Colombian history. More than a 100 people, including 11 Supreme Court magistrates, died in the siege and the retaking of the building by the army. Eleven civilians who were seen rescued from the building by soldiers mysteriously disappeared.

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