Court says that the Ministry of Defense did not comply with the order to apologize for excesses of force in protests – Courts – Justice



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On the same day that Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo participated in a debate on the motion of censure in Congress, A decision of the Superior Court of Bogotá was known that concluded that the statements he made two weeks ago did not comply with what the Supreme Court of Justice ordered him for the arbitrary acts of the Public Force during the protests of 2019.

Thus, the Civil Chamber of the Superior Court of Bogotá, with a presentation by Judge Hilda González Neira, reiterated the order that the Court gave Carlos Holmes Trujillo at the end of September, to offer public apologies for the excesses in the use of force during the protests of the National Strike last year.

The Civil Chamber of the Court reviewed the response that the minister gave on September 24, in which he had reiterated the apologies that he had offered two weeks ago, but for the murder of lawyer Javier Ordóñez, at the hands of the police.

Upon reviewing that response, sent to the Court through the Director of Legal Affairs of the Ministry of Defense, in which she attached the full text of the minister’s public excuses, the Court concluded that what the Ministry of Defense said in that statement was not appropriate. to “the order issued by the Civil Cassation Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice”.

(Also read: Court orders to protect the right to protest against systematic attacks).

This is because, the Court says, what the Court ordered was that within 48 hours, proceed to offer public apologies for the excesses of the Public Force, especially for those committed by Esmad, during the protests that took place in the country as of November 21, 2019.

(Also: As long as Duque allows me, I will continue in my duties: Defense Ministry).

As it is, the Court gave the Minister of Defense a day, counted from the communication of the decision, to “strictly comply with the order” given by the Supreme Court of Justice as symbolic reparation.

In addition, the Civil Chamber of the Court also ordered him to notify him when he complies with the order that was given, through his secretary.

Before the Court’s decision was known, this Wednesday, during the political control debate against the Minister of Defense, Trujillo assured that he had lost forgiveness. “Yes I asked: product of my conscience, spontaneous and I did it in light of what was happening”.

Yes I asked: product of my conscience, spontaneous and I did it in light of what was happening

Trujillo also said in Congress: “Is a spontaneous forgiveness less than a forced forgiveness?”

But the Court ruling agrees with those who questioned the Ministry of Defense and said that his “reiteration” of the act of forgiveness was not a fulfillment of what the Supreme Court of Justice had told him, therefore, the Civil Chamber of the Court Superior of Bogotá ordered him to offer public apologies “in the precise terms in which it was provided in the operative part of the cited order “.

(Read: Harsh criticism from the opposition for the response of the Ministry of Defense to the ruling).

If it does not do so, says the Tribunal of Bogotá, the minister is exposed to continue with the process of compliance with the guardianship, that is, to be declared in contempt.

The order that the Supreme Court of Justice gave Trujillo was derived from the ruling in which his Civil Chamber concluded that there has been a systematic violation of the right to peaceful protest in the country due to arbitrary attacks on protesters by the Public Forces, the excess and disproportion in the use of force, the stigmatization of those who want to protest, among other irregularities indicated in the guardianship ruling.

This protection was promoted by 49 citizens who exposed various facts in which the Public Force, such as the Police, the Esmad and even the Army, have arbitrarily intervened in demonstrations, violating the right to protest peacefully. The Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court gave them reason, and therefore issued a series of orders to the Government to prevent such events from happening again.

JUSTICE

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