A court in Madrid admitted for processing a complaint once morest the presidential candidate of left Colombian Gustavo Petro for the kidnapping of a journalist when the politician was a member of the disappeared M-19 guerrilla, judicial sources indicated this Monday.
The car, dated May 19, was released this Monday just following Petro won the first round of the Colombian presidential elections on Sunday, following which he will dispute the ballot with the millionaire. Rodolfo Hernandez on June 19.
Judge Joaquín Gadea of the National Court – a court in Madrid in charge of complex matters – determined that the Spanish justice might have jurisdiction in the case of the kidnapping of the journalist Fernando González Pacheco, for having Spanish nationality, and therefore admitted the complaint.
The magistrate determined that three requirements must be met for the investigation to begin: that it be verified with the Colombian authorities that Petro was not pardoned, that it be determined that González Pacheco, now deceased, was indeed Spanish, and that his relatives decide to sue in this case. .
The complaint was filed in March by François Roger Cavard, a lawyer who in 2018 unsuccessfully tried in Colombia to cancel the registration of Petro’s candidacy, alleging that he had not been amnestied for crimes committed when he belonged to the M-19, who laid down his arms in 1990.
At the National Court, Cavard accused Petro of crimes once morest humanity, as “one of the most responsible” for that urban guerrilla, who in his active years would have committed crimes such as “selective murders”, “attacks with explosives” , «massacres», «kidnappings» and «torture, cruel treatment and disappearances».
The Spanish prosecutor’s office had requested that the complaint be dismissed, considering that the Spanish courts did not have jurisdiction to investigate it.
