Three men get 17 years for murder of politician’s wife

A Colombian court found three men charged with the murder of a Bogota city councilor’s wife guilty and sentenced them to 17 years in prison on Tuesday.

Luis Enrique Diaz Rivera, Víctor David Jimenez and Jonathan Torres Martínez were originally sentenced to 34 years in prison, but the prosecutor asked for a reduced sentence in light of the fact that all three confessed to the crime.

According to the testimony of the three defendants, the councilman, Vladimir Melo, had asked the three men to kill his wife, Alejandra Diaz Lezama, in exchange for COP5 million last July, of which he only paid 2 million.

Melo is also currently in prison and on trial for conspiring to plan the murder. He is denying everything, despite the testimony of the three murderers, and a supposed audio recording of Melo talking about the planned killing with the three murderers.

An ex-lover of Melo’s is also being presented as a witness at the trial, although a judge struck down a sex tape of the two as evidence in his trial for being illegally captured by a third party.

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