Colombia Threats addressed at lawyers

On 13 October 2010, Leonardo Jaimes Marín was informed that a murder attempt would be directed at him. He defends family members of victims of extrajudicial executions. In such cases, civilians are murdered by military groups, who report the incident subsequently as a ‘death due to military confrontation’. On 28 March 2008, 3 men were probably the victims of such executions in El Playon, in Northern Colombia.

In another case, William Cristancho Duarte was threatened on 26 October 2010 because of his activities as a human rights lawyer. On 10 December, an assault was directed at his car. He too defends victims of extrajudicial executions. William Cristancho Duarte stood by the family of victims of extrajudicial executions that took place on 19 October 2007.

L4L organized a letter writing campaign for these lawyers in January 2011. You can find the letters that were sent at the time here.