Supreme Court overturned the acquittal for the murder of journalist Nelson Carvajal

The Colombian Supreme Court of Justice on Tuesday revoked the acquittal decreed in favor of the writer and historian, Fernando Bermudez Ardila, for the murder of radio journalist Nelson Carvajal Carvajal, after accepting the request of the Attorney General's Office, which is why the trial was ordered to resume from the hearing preparatory.

The High Court's Cassation Chamber noted that, after settling a request for review filed by Bogotá's criminal prosecutor 358, there was evidence of new evidence involving Bermudez Ardila, which became known after the conclusion of the trial for this murder that was perpetrated on April 16, 1998 in the municipality of Pitalito, Huila.

The Public Ministry pointed out that for the judges of the court, the analysis of this evidence could affect the writer's assessment of responsibility, in this crime, which was declared a crime against humanity in August 2019, which is why they overturned the first and second instance sentences that acquitted Bermúdez Ardila on the charge of aggravated homicide.

“This testimony, as soon as heard on the appointed date, long after the judgment that is the subject of the review, undoubtedly responds to the qualification of new evidence,” the togates of the Chamber of Cassation detailed in the decision.

According to the supervisory body, the evidence referred to by the judges of the Supreme Court of Justice is the testimony of a former combatant of the demobilized FARC guerrilla, who is in the process of being reinstated, who submitted to the Attorney-General's Office some time after the final ruling by the murder of the news director Momento Regional and the radio magazines Mirador de la Semana, Amanecer en el Campo and Tribuna Médica of the Radio Sur Radio Station in Pitalito.

In turn, the judges detailed that the review requested by the Office of the Attorney General was appropriate because it was an acquittal in a trial for violations of human rights or international humanitarian law, while acknowledging that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) heard this case and found the “existence of evidence not known at the time of the debates”.

“Only in relation to the defendant, since it is to him that the new elements of conviction refer, and therefore the judgments handed down respectively will be rescinded”, concluded the judges in the decision cited by the Office of the Procurator.

Journalist Nelson Carvajal devoted much of his work to monitoring issues of local corruption, according to the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP), in which he denounced irregularities in the administration of public funds and the laundering of money from drug trafficking.

The radio journalist was murdered in the context of the armed conflict during a period when violence against persons who practised this trade in the country was repeated. However, the IACHR condemned the Colombian State for the murder of the reporter and ordered the State to continue with the investigation and judicial proceedings that would allow the perpetrators to be brought to justice for these acts.

“We call on the Colombian Justice to redouble its efforts to ensure that the crime of journalists is clarified and that material and intellectual authors are condemned. They urge the State to comply with the other reparations ordered by the Inter-American Court in the case and which remain pending compliance more than a year after the sentence,” said IAPA President María Elvira Domínguez and RFK Human Rights President Kerry Kennedy.

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