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Alert

RSF calls for new investigation in journalist Jaime Garzón's case

(RSF/IFEX) - The following is a 24 October 2002 RSF press release:




Call for new investigation in view of serious doubts about prosecution testimonies

An independent enquiry by Reporters Without Borders and the Damocles Network has raised serious doubts about the main testimonies in the prosecution's case against Juan Pablo Ortiz and Edilberto Antonio Sierra, who are being held for the 13 August 1999 murder in Bogota of journalist Jaime Garzon, of Radionet and Caracol TV. The two organisations are therefore calling for a new investigation into the case.

The independent enquiry found that none of the four main prosecution witnesses is credible, although their statements were largely responsible for the investigating judge's decision to charge Ortiz (also known as El Bochas) and Sierra (also known as Toño). Their initial statements were supplied to judicial investigators by the Administrative Department for Security (DAS), an intelligence service under the president's authority. The fact that these statements lack credibility therefore raises the possibility that the DAS deliberately misled investigators.

For the full text of the Reporters Without Borders press release on the latest developments in the Garzon case, see www.rsf.org.