Defense of uniformed man accused of torturing prisoner in prison La Modelo says the Prosecutor's Office has no evidence

The defense of the inpec dragonist, Víctor Cervera Piratoba, denounced that the Attorney General's Office did not want to give him all the evidence of the proceedings being carried out against his client, even though that action is stipulated by law. Cervera is said to be one of the uniformed men who allegedly tortured prisoners at La Modelo prison. The man is in house detention and is being investigated having struck in the face a prisoner who was being held at the La Samaritana Hospital in Bogotá following the disturbances that occurred between March 20 and 21, 2020.

“We are in a trial in which my client would possibly face 30 years in prison and to date the complete discovery has not yet been made, not enough, nor clearly. The answer is ambiguous and superficial (...) We don't know who other victims are and why the prosecution openly states that it has not made the discovery about those other victims,” said criminal lawyer Ahalia Quintero. The trial preparatory school is scheduled for April 25.

The detainee is one of other uniformed men accused of assaulting persons detained in that prison. The riot occurred because the prisoners were asking to strengthen health measures against COVID-19. According to the document presented by the Attorney General's Office, drug user Julián Alberto Piñeros Gómez would be involved in two of the cases of torture. Apparently, “the guard beat and handcuffed naked a prisoner of liberty”, who had been told to participate in the mutiny. “He would have squatted him for several hours and injured him with a sharp weapon,” the entity explained in a statement.

Piñeros, the accuser commented, “allegedly, he fists an inmate who was wounded by a gun shell and cut off the index finger of his left hand.” Victor Alfonso Cervera Piratova and Jefferson Fabian Hueso Escarraga reportedly participated in the latter accusation. The judiciary stated that, “allegedly, two prisoners of liberty who were in the hospital La Misericordia were attacked with the tonfa or baton of command” because of the injuries they received with firearms during the prison demonstration. “These two men were reportedly beaten multiple times while they were handcuffed on a stretcher. When they returned to the prison establishment, they were violently punished,” added the Prosecutor's Office.

Julián Alberto Piñeros Gomez, Victor Alfonso Cervera Piratoba and Jefferson Fabian Hueso Escarraga were captured by the Prosecutor's Office on October 24, 2021. A security control judge decided, at that time, that Piñeros Gómez would comply with the security measure in a prison center; and that Cervera Piratoba and Hueso Escarraga would benefit from house detention while the investigation continued.

During the prison demonstration in March 2020, it was commented on that day, 24 prisoners died and 107 people were injured, of the latter, 76 were detained and 31 prison guards. The riot arose because of the need for prisoners to seek decent treatment in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Overcrowding did not allow citizens to comply with the measures established by the health authorities, including social distancing to avoid contagion.

Human Rights Watch produced a document in which it noted that by analyzing the 24 reports of necropsies issued by the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Colombia, it was possible to conclude that “most of the gunshot wounds described are consistent with the fact that they were inflicted with intent to kill.”

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