The Inter-American Court of Human Rights condemns Colombia for persecuting and spying on a group of lawyers

MADRID, 18 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Inter-American Court) has condemned the Colombian State for the persecution and espionage of the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective (CAJAR) specialized in the defense of Human Rights for more than 30 years.

This persecution was intended to hinder the victims’ right to defense, the right to defend Human Rights.

The Court considers more than ten violations of fundamental rights such as personal integrity, privacy, work, the right to defend Human Rights or the right to inform proven after verifying a hundred acts of “systematic aggression and persecution.”

Now the State must apply 16 reparation measures, including asking for forgiveness, purging files of the former Administrative Department of Security (DAS), creating a day to commemorate Human Rights defenders or reforming the intelligence and counterintelligence law. The Colombian State must present a report within one year on the level of compliance with the reparation measures.

“It is the first time that the Inter-American Court holds a trial for a case related to state surveillance through technology, thus pointing out the importance of addressing this problem at the international level,” indicates CAJAR on its social networks. “The Inter-American Court also ordered the Colombian State to purge intelligence files in which the members of CAJAR appear,” he highlights.

One of the members of the group, lawyer Soraya Gutiérrez Argüello, highlighted after learning of the decision that “we became the internal enemy for denouncing (…) that the paramilitaries were created as a way to repress social movements.”