JEP again suspends hearing of alias “Otoniel” due to police interruptions

The Examination Chamber of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) definitively and until further notice suspended the hearings in macro case 04, in which Dairo Úsuga, known as alias Otonie l, will speak as a witness. The former head of the Gulf Clan would give his testimony in the Urabá case; however, the proceedings being carried out on Tuesday were interrupted twice by officials of the National Police.

Sources close to La W reported that today's hearing could never be formally started because several uniformed men ordered that the door of the compound be kept open, which is not possible to protect the reserve from the testimony of alias Otoniel. On two occasions the audience even closed the door, but the police reopened it. Faced with this situation, the judge in charge of the case decided to suspend the proceedings due to the lack of guarantees.

It should be remembered that this is not the first time that the uniformed have interrupted and affected Otoniel's testimony. On March 10, the JEP also suspended the hearing, as the policemen guarding the former head of the Gulf Clan refused to leave the room while he gave his statement, and there were other officers in the audience without any explanation.

At that time, the court ordered the director of La Dijín, Major General Fernando Orrego, to refrain from “carrying out actions that affect the reservation of judicial proceedings with the presence of uniformed personnel or non-uniformed personnel” in the courtrooms. He also called for avoiding those “actions that hinder the practice of testimony,” the Court asserted.

According to El Colombiano, it is believed that the interventions of the public forces would be aimed at preventing Otoniel from revealing the institution's involvement in events associated with narco-paramilitaries. This assumption has been repeatedly denied by the Police, stating that it has no intention of affecting the hearings of alias Otoniel.

It is important to note that Dairo Úsuga's statement is given within the framework of the JEP macro case 04 on Urabá. There, the territorial situation is prioritized based on events of the conflict that occurred in this region between 1986 and 2016.

The court hopes that Otoniel's testimony will serve to discuss in depth the relations between different armed actors and civilians in the Urabá area and how they have benefited from violence to displace and enrich themselves.

Supreme Court of Justice denied the suspension of extradition Otoniel

Last Monday, March 15, the Supreme Court of Justice responded to the request of alias Otoniel to submit to the JEP in order to avoid his extradition to the United States, where he is required for drug trafficking offences.

The high court denied him the suspension of extradition and indicated that Dairo Úsuga is not on the list of former FARC combatants, nor was he part of the Public Forces, who are the actors that the JEP is responsible for investigating and prosecuting.

“The Chamber shall refrain from referring the file to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, from which it emerges that the request for suspension of the extradition procedure will not be granted either, since there is no serious and reasoned sight that Dairo Antonio Úsuga David complies with the factor rationae personae”, the court document reads.

KEEP READING: