Colombian Ex-Intelligence Chief Jailed Over Journalist Torture

Enrique Ariza, former head of Colombia’s
defunct DAS intelligence service

Bogota judge has sentenced a former intelligence chief to 12 years in prison for crimes including “aggravated torture” of a journalist, the Colombian public prosecutor’s office said.

Enrique Ariza, former head of Colombia’s defunct DAS intelligence service, was convicted of “persecution, harassment” and other crimes against journalist Claudia Julieta Duque, the prosecutor’s office said Thursday.

Ariza was found guilty of “the crime of aggravated torture,” it said on social media platform X.

With the latest conviction, “eight former officials of this agency have now been sentenced for the persecution to which my family and I were subjected,” said Duque on X.

On Monday, the former DAS deputy director, Jose Narvaez, was also sentenced to 12 years in prison in the same case.

Former intelligence director Giancarlo Auque, also linked to the case, is yet to be tried, Duque said.

The journalist, who had to be protected by bodyguards until she sought refuge in Spain, has accused the DAS of spying on her between 2001 and 2004, and threatening to murder her and rape her daughter when she was 10.

The origin of the harassment was Duque’s investigation of the murder of journalist Jaime Garzon in 1999, in which she denounced DAS involvement in crime.

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© Agence France-Presse