He had been appointed a new prosecutor and senior Colombian justice officials had raised concerns about due process rights violations in his case. However, in a surprising twist last week, the 28th antiterrorism prosecutor in Bogota issued a resolution formally bringing to trial the specious investigation against Agamez.
Carmelo Agamez is Technical Secretary of the Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE) in Sucre department. He was detained in November 2008 charged with consorting with right-wing paramilitary leaders. Agamez has devoted his career to documenting human rights violations and exposing alleged links between local public officials and paramilitaries. Given his strident opposition to paramilitary groups, it is implausible that he has also been consorting with them. The case against Agamez has been marked by a series of inconsistencies and violations, which both a court and the Prosecutor General of Colombia have publicly recognized.
In May 2009, the Superior Tribunal of Sucre found that the prosecutor breached Agamez's due process and defense rights by failing to inform him of the charges against him. According to Agamez’s defense, the arrest warrant against him was not authorized and his house was raided without a warrant. The charges against Agamez are based on the uncorroborated testimony from two discredited witnesses alleging that Agamez participated in a paramilitary meeting on an unspecified date. Neither of the witnesses are impartial: was recently detained after Agamez and MOVICE publicly exposed his alleged links to paramilitaries, while Agamez was involved in the arrest of the second witness’ brother and cousin. Many other witnesses have testified that Agamez did not participate in the meeting in question, while still another witness recanted her testimony explaining that the prosecutor had induced her to falsely impugn Agamez.
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