Montería, the city where the hearing will take place, was chosen because it is one of the regions where Mancuso is expected to present truthful contributions on crimes of violence.
The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) set for the next May 10, 11, 15 and 16 the public hearings in which the former paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancuso will be able to make contributions to the truth about the Colombian armed conflict so that this court can assess whether it can access transitional justice.
“This diligence will be final to determine whether or not Mancuso’s submission to the JEP as a subject functionally and materially incorporated into the public force,” said that court in a statement released this Thursday.
Mancuso, who is serving a sentence for drug trafficking in the United States, must connect virtually to the hearing before the JEP’s Chamber for the Definition of Legal Situations and before representatives of victims from the Caribbean department of Córdoba, who will attend the proceeding in Montería, the regional capital, as listeners.
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The JEP hopes that the former paramilitary chief will make “present, effective and sufficient contributions to the full truth”, which go beyond what is already known by ordinary justice and by the Justice and Peace Law, the basis for the demobilization in 2006 of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).
Everything that Mancuso denies or affirms will be contrasted by the magistrates of the room to determine if it is accepted in the JEP to access the benefits of transitional justice, added the information.
Montería, the city where the hearing will take place, was chosen because it is one of the regions where Mancuso is expected to present truthful contributions on “serious crimes and violations of human rights.”
Mancuso, who was the last head of the Auc, was extradited to the US in 2008, where he was convicted of crimes related to drug trafficking and is waiting to return to Colombia where he must answer for numerous crimes, but the return order has been stopped for the coronavirus.
To avoid this responsibility, in addition to asking to be returned to Italy, a country of which he also has nationality, Mancuso has requested on several occasions to submit to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), which contemplates non-custodial sentences if the defendants give sufficient truth and recognition of the crimes committed.
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Despite the fact that the JEP rejected him for his role as a paramilitary, since his jurisdiction is to judge the FARC guerrillas and State agents, last February that court opened the door for him to testify as an opportunity to contribute the truth about events that occurred during the Colombian armed conflict. EFE