09) IMPORTANT VICTORY FOR LILIANY OBANDO

 

            The initial reports are sketchy, but it appears that Colombian political prisoner Liliany Obando has won an important legal victory.

            In a Feb. 29 news release, the International Network of Solidarity with Political Prisoners and other solidarity groups announced that the Superior Court Judicial District of Bogota-Criminal Chamber had ordered Liliany's immediate release. The decision may reflect the possibility of a legitimate peace process in the country, which for decades has been racked by a civil war provoked by the Colombian ruling classes.

            A powerful advocate of human and labour rights, Liliany Obando has been held in pre‑trial detention since August 8, 2008, a total of three years and seven months of arbitrary imprisonment without trial on charges of "rebellion."

            Liliany was arrested while serving as the Human Rights Coordinator for Fensuagro, Colombia's largest organization of peasant farmers and farm workers unions and associations. She had been preparing a report about the more than 1,500 Fensuagro members killed by Colombian military and paramilitary troops over its first 30 years of existence.

            The case was stretched for years without resolution. Even when the Colombian Supreme Court ruled that the evidence against her was inadmissible, she continued to be jailed despite international protests. Her release was announced concurrent with the "Colombia Behind Bars" conference in support of 8,000 political prisoners.

            However, the court process has not been suspended and Liliany still could be sent back to jail. While the so-called "farc-politica" frame-up against human rights activists has now completely collapsed, the Colombian state may find another pretext to detain Liliany again, or she could become a target of murderous right-wing paramilitaries.

            Solidarity groups are therefore demanding that the Colombian state guarantee Liliany's safety and personal integrity, and that of her family.

            Moments after receiving the news, Liliany spoke from the Buen Pastor women's prison to a representative of the International Network for the Political Prisoners.

            "I have mixed emotions," Liliany said. "I want to leave, but I don't want to leave the other political prisoners behind. We have to keep working until all the political prisoners are free."

(The above article is from the March 16-31, 2012, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)