Sigifredo López, a former Valle del Cauca deputy, had been held hostage by the FARC since 2002. On May 16, 2012, the Attorney General's Office arrested him and accused him of taking part in the kidnapping of his fellow deputies. The main evidence was a morphological comparison of a video.
He spent just over a month in prison and almost two months under house arrest. He was released in August 2012. In September, prosecutors dropped the case after concluding he had not committed the crimes, and in October they publicly apologized.
What the courts decided
- The Administrative Court of Cundinamarca held the Attorney General's Office liable in 2017.
- The Council of State, in a ruling of April 24, 2023, upheld the liability, but adjusted the amounts to its guideline tables for short detentions: 11 monthly minimum wages in moral damages for him, 5.5 for each close relative and smaller amounts for others, plus lost income. It did not grant a separate payment for damage to his reputation: it found the public apology had already repaired it.
Why it matters
When someone is detained and it is later shown they didn't commit the crime, the State must compensate them. But compensation depends mainly on how long the person was deprived of liberty and on what is proven, not on how well known the case is or how serious the accusation was.
What it means if something similar happened to you
If you were detained and later acquitted, or the case against you was dropped, you may have a right to claim. The deadline is short (generally two years from when the decision clearing you becomes final), so it's worth reviewing as soon as possible.
Sources
- Consejo de Estado, Sección Tercera, sentencia (rad. 60330) (24 de abril de 2023)
- El Tiempo (fallo de primera instancia) (13 de julio de 2017)
This is a summary of public news written by García & Asociados Abogados for informational purposes. Every case depends on its own facts and evidence: it doesn’t mean another case will have the same outcome.
Photo: Palace of Justice in Bogotá, seat of Colombia's Council of State — Luis Alvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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