The legal defense of recently convicted Jorge Noguera, the former head of Colombia’s intelligence agency DAS, will look to appeal his guilty conviction and 25 year sentence, newspaper El Espectador reported Thursday.
Jose Fernando Mestre, Noguera’s lawyer, claims the Supreme Court “did not conduct a serious investigation nor a detailed assessment of the testimonies given throughout the trial which lasted more than three years.”
The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Noguera was responsible for paramilitary infiltration of the Colombian intelligence agency DAS.
He was also held responsible for the murder of university professor Alfredo Correa de Andreis, who was assassinated after Noguera passed information about the academic to paramilitaries.
Mestre believes there was not strong enough evidence to convict Noguera and announced that he would go to international organizations to seek protection for his client.
The lawyer argues that “despite serious contradictions” in the testimony of former DAS official Rafael Garcia against Noguera, the Supreme Court took Garcia’s accusations at face value.
Noguera’s counsel also maintains that there was not sufficient evidence to prove that he provided information about unionists and human rights workers, who were subsequently threatened and killed, to paramilitary groups.