The Supreme Court of Colombia has granted parole on Tuesday to the former director of the Colombian secret police, María del Pilar Hurtado, after being in jail since January 2015.
The decision of the high court takes place after Hurtado’s defense requested her release in January 2022, a request that was rejected by the Fifth Court for the Execution of Sentences, alleging that the former official did not meet “all the required conditions” for this, as reported by the Colombian newspaper ‘El Espectador’.
However, the Colombian Supreme Court has considered that the culmination of Hurtado’s sentence in a prison center is not necessary.
“For the Chamber, it is clear that, even when it comes to serious conduct, in any case, it is noted that the resocializing purpose of the sentence has been satisfied (…) the behavior of the person involved during her imprisonment, allows us to reasonably predict that the total fulfillment of the sentence in confinement is not necessary”, uses the ruling of more than 60 pages collected by ‘El Tiempo’.
Hurtado was prosecuted for intercepting the communications of journalists, judges and opposition politicians, during the government of Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010). She was also tried for the crimes of embezzlement by appropriation, ideological falsehood in a public document, abuse of public office and conspiracy to commit a crime.
In 2010, the former director left Colombia for Panama as an asylum seeker. She became the first Colombian official to inaugurate the practice of evading justice by fleeing abroad.
But after the electoral victory of Juan Carlos Varela, who took office as president of Panama on July 1, 2014 -who announced that if the Colombian Justice requested his extradition, it would approve it-, Hurtado returned to Colombia and appeared before the Superior Court of Bogotá, where she was arrested.
Since then, the former director of the Colombian Secret Police has remained in prison after being sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Source: Europa Press
