60
does not have the effect of res judicata in relation to future criminal investigations.” The
Commission also indicated that “the Colombian judicial system has not established
punishments for any of the individuals who have been demobilized or charged based on the
application of the Justice and Peace Law” and that “the debate continues with regard to
which of the articles rectified by the Colombian Constitutional Court’s judgment could be
applied to the proceedings as a result of the principle of lenity.” In addition, the Commission
indicated that “the decision about whether [some individuals accused of the facts of the
Rochelacase] meet the eligibility requirements [of the Justice and Peace Law] still depends
on a decision, first, of the Attorney General and then of the Justice and Peace Tribunal; they
are responsible for determining whether that legal framework is applicable to this specific
situation.” The Commission added that “all these discussions are taking place within the
Colombian legal system and with the intervention of a variety of judicial institutions.”
Consequently, the Commission “considers that, on the one hand, there is the matter of the
relationship between this debate and the facts of the case and, on the other hand, it is
essential that the debate on this legal framework should not take place in abstract or
exclusively academic terms, but rather, that it should examine how this legal framework will
be applied to a concrete and specific situation.”
188. At the public hearing, the Court requested that in their final written arguments the
parties submit precise information on the current and possible future application of the
normative framework for demobilization to individuals who could be tied to the “The Rochela
massacre” or to the paramilitary groups that are alleged to have taken part in the
massacre. In its final written arguments of March 2, 2007, the State submitted a list of
individuals who are among “those who have received a pardon and subsequently applied for
access to the benefits of Law 975 of 2005”; they include: Iván Roberto Duque Gaviria,
Ramón María Isaza Arango, José Anselmo Martínez Bernal and Ricardo Antonio Ríos
Avendaño. The Court observes that these individuals are implicated in the investigations
into the Rochela Massacre (supra para. 98, footnote 74; para. 153(d), footnote 128; para.
154(b), footnotes 131 and 133; and para. 154(e), footnote 139). The Court also observes
that Gilberto Silva Cortés, accused of the murder of the members of the Judicial
Commission (supra para. 154(e), footnote 138), accepted the charges against him and
requested that the alternative punishment established by Law 975 of 2005 be applied to
him.197 The representatives stated that Gilberto Contrera Contrera and Faber Alejandro
Rivera Correa are on the list submitted by the State and that these individuals are included
in an order for production of evidence [auto de pruebas] issued by the prosecutor in relation
to the full identification and location of 103 persons allegedly involved in the Rochela
Massacre.198
189. On March 26, 2007, the State submitted a report of the National Prosecutor’s Unit for
Justice and Peace. The State indicated that the report includes “the names of the individuals
that the representatives mention as being involved in the events of the present case, and
who are being processed under norms of Law 975.” In this report it indicated that the Law
975 procedure “begins once the National Government […] sends the Attorney General’s
Office the list of those who have applied for the procedure and benefits” of this Law. In this
regard, as stated by the Prosecutors’ Unit, “the mere declaration of the demobilized
individuals is not sufficient to initiate the respective procedure.” Accordingly, the Unit
reported that “from the list submitted by the “Department of [International Relations of the
Office of the Attorney General]” the names of the following people “have been put forward”:
197
Cf. record of the public hearing of December 1, 2006 before the First Criminal Court of the Specialized
Circuit of Bucaramanga (evidence 1 of the representatives’ written closing arguments, record of the merits,
possible reparations and costs, volume V, pages 1587 and 1588).
198
Cf. Articles 16 and 28 of Law 975 of 2005 of July 25, 2005.
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