The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced Thursday the end of preliminary investigations into war crimes and against humanity during the armed conflict in Colombia, considering that the country was fulfilling its
"obligations"
in this area.
"Colombia is living up to its international obligations (...) I am happy to say that I can withdraw from the stage of the preliminary examination"
, declared the prosecutor, Karim Khan, from the seat of the government in Bogota, in the presence of President Ivan Duque.
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Since 2004, the prosecutor's office has been conducting a preliminary investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the armed conflict that has rocked the country for six decades.
The aim was to examine the risk that the facts will not be tried in Colombia, which is one of the reasons justifying intervention by the ICC, the court of last resort.
The British lawyer indicated that during his visit to Colombia he had observed that the institutions
"fulfilled their constitutional responsibilities"
and that
"thousands of people were being investigated".
"Real efforts have been made to close the breach of impunity,"
he stressed.
President Duque welcomed the recognition
of his country's
“institutional strength”
.
"Colombia has shown that here there are judgments, sentences, reparation and above all that there is a very important effort in favor of the truth"
, he declared. In this context, the ICC announced the signing of a
"cooperation agreement"
with the government
"aimed at supporting national efforts in favor of transitional justice"
, a world first, according to her.
Karim Khan praised the role of this Special Justice for Peace (JEP), resulting from the historic Peace Agreement signed in 2016 between the government and the former guerrilla forces of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Ivan Duque is a staunch opponent of this Peace Agreement.
But before the ICC, the government of the conservative president pledged to
"ensure that the JEP receives the space it needs to do its job"
and to provide it with public funding without
"any political interference",
according to Karim Khan.
Since 2017, the special court has indicted former FARC commanders for the kidnapping of at least 21,000 people and the recruitment of 18,000 minors.
Senior military officials have been indicted for the extrajudicial killings of more than 6,400 civilians.
The JEP is expected to hand down its first sentences in late 2021 or early 2022. The Hague-based ICC investigates and, where appropriate, tries those accused of the most serious crimes affecting the entire international community: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression, when national courts are unable or unwilling to do so.
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