The Supreme Court of Colombia acquitted Jose Crisanto of a 33-year sentence he had received for the alleged kidnapping of a former vice-presidential candidate’s son, local media reported Monday.
The former vice-presidential candidate Clara Rojas was kidnapped in 2002 by FARC rebels and gave birth to a son during her captivity.
In 2004, Crisantos claims the FARC handed him the baby of Rojas because the baby was ill and his father was a healer.
An employee of a hostel, in the town of San Jose del Guaviare located in the southeastern part of Colombia, where Crisantos was staying with the ill child, filed a complaint with the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF), after seeing the poor condition of the child, according to El Pais.
Authorities took the child to the hospital, where he was admitted with malaria, leishmaniasis, malnutrition and a broken arm.
After receiving information of a grandson, Rojas’ mother began her search for the boy, and eventually found him in a foster home in the Colombian capital Bogota. DNA evidence proved the boy to be the son of Rojas.
In 2008, Rojas and her son was reunited after more than three years apart.
“I always thought he was the son of a guerrilla and cared for him in precarious conditions, because I did not know how to care for him and my seven other children,” Crisantos told El Pais.
Crisantos who has continuously maintained his innocence, has been acquitted after the Supreme Court ruled that there was a lack of substantial evidence linking Crisantos to the FARC.
“I have never transgressed the law or committed any crime. The thing I did was a humanitarian act and I believe this is not only good news for me but it is a message to the country that one can do justice,” Crisantos told El Pais.
MORE: Man accused of kidnapping Clara Rojas’ child sentenced to 33 years