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The Criminal Cassation Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice rejected an appeal that had been presented the former deputy director of the disappeared DAS, José Miguel Narváez, and upheld the 26-year prison sentence against him for the murder of journalist Jaime Garzón.
Reviewing the appeal filed by the defense of Narváez, the Court found that his conviction did not violate his guarantees and, therefore, upheld his sentence.
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According to the judgment against you, the former head of the DAS was determinative the murder of the journalist, on August 13, 1999. According to the judgment of the Superior Court of Bogotá, now confirmed by the Court, Narváez induced the paramilitary Carlos Castaño Gil to order the murder of Garzón Forero, in Bogotá.
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Narváez’s defense had asked to overturn the sentence stating that he had not had the opportunity to exercise his right to contradiction on the evidence, and that his guarantees of due process and defense had also been violated.
José Miguel Narváez (center), when he was prosecuted for the ‘chuzadas’.
He also said that the ruling had given the statements of some witnesses an assessment that was not adequate. According to Narváez, the Prosecutor’s Office had not demonstrated how the former deputy director of the DAS determined the murder of Garzón, despite the fact that the accusing entity indicated that it had been proven that Narváez frequented the paramilitary camps, where he gave instructions and met with Carlos Castaño, at who advised and gave him names of people who according to him had links with the guerrillas.
(Also read: Convicted for the murder of Jaime Garzón will go to the Truth Commission).
One of those names, the investigation says, was that of Jaime Garzón, whom Narváez pointed out only for having mediated in the liberation of hostages who were in the hands of the guerrillas.
For the defense, the Prosecutor’s Office had not been able to establish the circumstances of time, manner and place in which Narváez induced Castaño to commit the crime. This, contradicting and denying the veracity of what former paramilitary chiefs such as Iván Roberto Duque, Salvatores Mancuso, Fredy Rendón Herrera and Diego Fernando Murillo said, who testified against Narváez and claimed to have seen him in the camps of the former Self-Defense Forces.
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But the Court rejected all these arguments and refused to accept Narváez’s appeal for cassation, stating that he did not meet the requirements because it did not prove the rights or guarantees that the judgment had violated. Nor did he indicate what was the reason for presenting the cassation.
According to the high court, Narváez was not clear in his allegations because: “he did not specify what the violation of due process or the right of defense consisted and only indicated that the process is invalid due to the incorporation of transfer evidence that was not validated by applying the provisions of the General Process Code “.
The high court also said that Narvéz had all the guarantees to be able to contradict the evidence that was presented to him in the investigation, the accusation and during the trial, for which he had many opportunities and full freedom to dispute the testimonies that were against him.
On the other hand, the Criminal Cassation Chamber said that when reviewing the sentence it is clear that through the evidence the Prosecutor’s Office he was able to establish the circumstances of time, manner and place in which Narváez determined the murder of Jaime Garzón.
Thus, the accusing body recalled that based on the statements of witnesses, Narváez was in the paramilitary camps in the years 97 and 98, and this is reported by former paramilitary chiefs such as Iván Roberto Duque, alias ‘Ernesto Báez’, who said that He saw it at the ‘La 70’ farm. And Salvatore Mancuso pointed out that he saw it in 2000 at the ‘La 15’ and ‘la 21’ farms. While Freddy Rendón Herrera, alias ‘el Alemán’, pointed out that he saw him between the years 96 and 2000 at the farm ‘la 35’.
Furthermore, the Court said, the Prosecutor’s Office pointed out that Narváez was a trusted advisor to Carlos Castaño Gil and an instructor in the paramilitary indoctrination schools, “which is why not only did he have great influence over the paramilitary commander, but also Through his indoctrination talks, he instigated him, advised him and transmitted to him the idea of eliminating people who were contrary to his interests, “says the Court’s ruling.
It was also taken into account that Diego Fernando Murillo, better known in paramilitary life as ‘don Berna’, pointed out that he was present when Carlos Castaño ordered him to assassinate Jaime Garzón. According to the statement delivered by ‘Don Berna’ on February 13, 2012, in Miami, within the information that Narváez had given Carlos Castaño was a photo of Jaime Garzón with a camouflaged jacket, in Sumapaz.
According to “don Berna”, Narvéz told Castaño that the journalist was not only a facilitator in the liberations, but was also part of the FARC structure. “Given what Castaño told him to communicate with aliases ‘El Negro Elkin’, and told him that he made the decision to terminate Garzón,” recalls the ruling.
Even, as ‘don Berna’ said, In the folder that Narváez left them, there was all the information about Jaime Garzón, and it was established that he worked in a well-known radio station, that he had a program in the mornings, for which the people Castaño commissioned traveled to Bogotá and “with the help of military intelligence” followed the journalist until he was assassinated.
JUSTICE DRAFTING
