Military members involved in the case of abuse of the Embera girl would receive the maximum sanction from the Attorney General’s Office. At this time the ruling is read

On Thursday morning, the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation began with the reading of the ruling sanctioning the seven uniformed members of the National Army accused of sexually abusing an indigenous girl Embera Chami, on June 21, 2020, in the municipality of Pueblo Rico, Risaralda.

Although the reading had not finished by noon, the disciplinary sanction, apparently, would be the maximum: dismissal and inability to hold military positions for 20 years,

The ruling comes six days after the attorney for the under-12-year-old requested an exemplary punishment for the uniformed, claiming that they had acted against ethics and military honor.

The soldiers linked to the case and who were dismissed and disabled today are Juan Camilo Morales Poveda, Yair Stiven González, Luis Pérez Holguín, Juan David Guaidi Ruíz, Óscar Eduardo Alzate, Deyson Andrés Isaza Zapata and Luis Fernando Mangareth Hernández.

It also occurred after the disciplinary process had been suspended, on November 3, Due to a tutelage filed with the Attorney General’s Office by the defense of the soldiers, in which, it was denounced, the right to due process had not been guaranteed.

After the ruling of the guardianship, the military presented evidence before the criminal court 26 of the Bogotá circuit that at the beginning of the investigation they had not shown, A factor that delayed the development of the subsequent hearings and unleashed discontent and indignation on the part of the indigenous community present in Bogotá.

Today, in the absence of criminal sanctions on the case, progress was made in the disciplinary sanction, at least in the first instance, by the Public Ministry.

This is how the events happened

The events occurred on June 21, when the girl, according to what she told the doctor in charge of her case, Campo Elías Ochoa, went to collect guavas near where the seven soldiers accused of sexually abusing her were located.

The girl is known, according to the doctor who took her testimony a month ago, that she is in a stable physical and mental state. The soldiers, before the arrest of the guardianship process, were incriminated in situations that aggravated the crime against the minor.

In one of the last hearings, it was learned that some of the soldiers responsible for the sexual abuse had called others by cell phone to participate in the rape of the minor, which occurred in Pueblo Rico (Risaralda).

“After a while the other soldiers arrived, there were 9 people, they all wore a soldier’s uniform, I could only see the faces of three of them, since it was dark I couldn’t see very well (…). One of them covered my mouth so that I wouldn’t scream, they told me not to tell anyone that this was a secret, ”the minor declared.