WHEREAS
the man who murdered La Patria managing editor Orlando Sierra was freed from prison after serving only 67 months of what was originally a 29-year sentence thanks to successive reductions in penalty and other benefits
WHEREAS
in only three (Nelson Carvajal, Martín La Rotta and José Emeterio Rivas) of the 26 cases of the murder of journalists that the Human Rights Unit of the Colombian Attorney Generals Office has under way was there progress in the last six months and the Attorney Generals Office warns that it lacks sufficient staff and technical resources to pursue the investigations effectively
WHEREAS
within the framework of confessions and unsolicited statements by demobilized paramilitaries to prosecutors in the Justice and Peace Unit of the Colombian Attorney Generals Office some paramilitaries have acknowledged responsibility in the murders of Efraín Varela Noriega, Martín La Rotta and José Emeterio Rivas
WHEREAS
by a resolution of March 31, 2006 the Colombian Attorney Generals Office pledged to carry out exhaustive investigations into the murders of 12 journalists, among them those of Carlos Lajud Catalán, Jairo Elías Márquez, Hernando Rangel Moreno, Gerardo Bedoya and Gustavo Ruiz Cantillo, yet one year and seven months later there has been no progress in these inquiries
WHEREAS
despite innumerable pleas by the IAPA the majority of the investigations into crimes against journalists conducted in the various departments of the Attorney Generals Office around the country remain shelved or suspended or have shown no progress towards identification of those guilty of these murders
WHEREAS
in the investigation into the murder of Nelson Carvajal Carvajal numerous inquiries have been made and as a result of them it has been possible to establish that the investigator of the IAPAs Rapid Response Unit, witnesses that have collaborated and the murdered journalists family are all in danger and the IAPA has formally requested protection for them
WHEREAS
Principle 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states that murder, terrorism, kidnapping, intimidation, the unjust imprisonment of journalists, the destruction of facilities, violence of any kind and impunity for perpetrators severely restrict freedom of expression and press freedom. Such acts must be investigated promptly and punished harshly
THE IAPA GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES
to request the immediate review of the Current Criminal System regarding the grant of early release from prison, so as to prevent those who murder journalists ending up receiving reduced prison terms, as occurred in the case of the contract killer who murdered La Patria managing editor Orlando Sierra
to urge the courts to apply the utmost rigor in granting early release and to ask the relevant authorities to look into the possibility of interposing the appropriate resources in the case of the release of Luis Fernando Soto Zapata
to call upon the Colombian president and attorney general to give priority to providing the staff and technical resources needed by the Human Rights Unit to effectively pursue investigations into crimes against journalists
to ask the National Public Prosecutors Directorate to make available the human and technical resources needed to review each of the investigations into crimes against journalists now suspended and/or shelved in the various offices around the country, and to ensure that inquiries are free of pressures in those areas where they are being conducted
to urge the Human Rights Unit of the Colombian Attorney Generals Office to take the corresponding in-depth action in line with the evidence gathered in the case of the murder of journalist Nelson Carvajal Carvajal and to call upon the Interior Ministrys Committee for the Protection of Journalists that once the security studies under way are completed to ensure the requested protection is provided, and that there is compliance with Resolution 0-0966 of March 31, 2006 to make greater effort to obtain meaningful decisions in meting out punishment to those responsible for crimes against journalists
to ask the Justice and Peace Unit prosecutors who receive unsolicited testimony from the paramilitaries to continue seeking to establish responsibilities among them for these crimes against journalists and mainly to provide the information they gather to the prosecutors in the Human Rights Unit so that it may be included and used in the respective investigations that they are handling.
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