Former FARC Leaders Of Colombia Face Prison Time Over Kidnappings

Seven former FARC commanders were found guilty of kidnappings and other crimes committed during Colombia's decades-long armed war, and the transitional justice tribunal of the country recommended that they be sentenced to five to eight years in prison.

A court will decide whether to include confinement outside of prisons and victim compensation, such as the removal of landmines, the search for the missing, and environmental restoration. The tribunal made its recommendation to the court, Al Jazeera reported.

A 2016 peace agreement to end a nearly six-decade armed struggle that claimed at least 450,000 lives between 1985 and 2018 led to the establishment of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), a court system to try former FARC members and military commanders for alleged war crimes.

Seven former leaders of the demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), among them former leader Rodrigo Londono, have admitted to committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, such as seizing hostages, severely restricting their freedom and other international crimes.

“The seven participants individually and collectively assumed their responsibility as co-perpetrators,” the JEP said, adding the United Nations will verify and monitor any sentencing.

According to the JEP, the FARC abducted people to raise money for financing their conflict with the government, while they also kidnapped military and government figures to press for the release of fighters who had been detained.

The physical, emotional, and moral agony experienced by kidnapping victims, some of whom spent years deprived of their freedom in the midst of the jungle, has been stated still to have an adverse effect on their mental health.

The former rebel group, FARC, which demobilized in 2017, had 21,396 kidnapping victims, according to the JEP, which initiated many investigations against it, said reports.

The JEP's conclusions regarding the FARC kidnapping cases are "a fundamental advance in the fight against impunity and victims' rights," according to Colombia's UN human rights office.

In order to facilitate cooperation between US officials and the former rebels as they transition into politics, the US last year removed its designation of the FARC as a "foreign terrorist group."