The Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,

Referring to the case of Mr. Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento, a member of the Colombian Senate and the New Liberalism party’s candidate in the presidential elections, who was murdered at a political rally on 18 August 1989 in the main square of Soacha municipality, Cundinamarca department, and to the resolution adopted at its 189th session (October 2011),

Recalling the following information on file:

• Lieutenant Carlos Humberto Flores, from Military Intelligence B2, was tried for complicity in the murder and acquitted at first and second instance; a cassation petition filed by the Prosecutor’s Office and Senator Galán’s family, as the civil party to the proceedings, remains pending before the Supreme Court;

• On 1 September 2011, the Supreme Court upheld the first-instance verdict whereby Mr. Santofimio, a politician from Tolima, was sentenced to a 24‑year prison term for having encouraged drug baron Pablo Escobar to have Senator Galán killed in order to prevent the latter, if elected President of Colombia, from implementing his intention to extradite drug traffickers to the United States of America;

• On 18 August 2009, the Prosecutor’s Office arrested General Miguel Maza Márquez, a former Director of the Administrative Department of Security (DAS), on accusations of involvement in Senator Galán’s murder, and declared the murder a crime against humanity; on 6 April 2010, the then Chief Prosecutor ordered General Maza’s provisional release; however, General Maza was called to trial on 25 November 2010 and rearrested on 15 January 2011; on 1 June 2011, the prosecutor in the case confirmed the indictment against General Maza, arguing that there was substantive evidence that he was responsible for the murder; trial proceedings started on 10 October 2011, at which time the judge in the case, the First Specialized Judge of Bogotá, confirmed that Senator Galán’s murder was a crime against humanity;

• On 25 November 2009, the Attorney General of Colombia, who had formed a special team to conduct the investigation into the murder, requested the Prosecutor’s Office to extend the investigation to retired General Oscar Peláez Carmona, who was the Chief of the Criminal Investigation Department at the time and had allegedly acted in complicity with General Maza in misleading and obstructing the original investigation; in March 2010, the Attorney General’s Office also asked the Prosecutor’s Office to link to the investigation Mr. Alberto Romero, former DAS intelligence chief, Colonel Manuel Antonio González Enríquez, who served as DAS protection chief, former paramilitary leader Iván Roberto Duque Gaviria, alias "Ernesto Báez", and Captain Luis Felipe Montilla Barbosa, Soacha Police Commander; on 26 August 2011, the source stated that the Prosecutor’s Office had not yet formally responded to the Attorney General’s requests to link those individuals to the investigation,

Considering that the Supreme Court annulled the proceedings against General Maza on 20 January 2012 on the grounds that he was entitled to privilege of jurisdiction and that his case should therefore have been referred directly to Colombia’s Chief Prosecutor, that General Maza was released as a result and that the proceedings will start afresh,

1. Is deeply disturbed by the latest turn of events regarding General Maza; fails to understand how he can be entitled to privilege of jurisdiction in respect of his alleged responsibility for acts unrelated to the proper exercise of his functions when he was DAS Director;

2. Sincerely hopes that the evidence collected and the conclusions drawn so far in the original proceedings will likewise guide the fresh proceedings; trusts that, because of the latest turn of events and the importance of the case, the Chief Prosecutor will give the matter absolute priority; wishes to ascertain her views in this respect;

3. Takes note with interest that one of the alleged culprits identified by the Attorney General’s Office has now been officially linked to the investigation; wishes to ascertain his current status in the overall investigation and to know whether the Prosecutor's Office will also soon take a decision regarding the others who have been identified as presumed culprits by the Attorney General’s Office;

4. Trusts that the Supreme Court will soon rule on the long-standing cassation petition regarding the alleged role of Lieutenant Flores in the crime; wishes to ascertain the prospects for its swift consideration;

5. Requests the Secretary General to convey this resolution to the competent authorities and to the source;

6. Requests the Committee to continue examining this case and to report to it at its next session, to be held during the 127th IPU Assembly (October 2012).

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