Colombia offers almost US$1 mln for ex-FARC leader info

BOGOTA: The Colombian government on Saturday said it was offering a near- US$1 million dollar reward for information leading to the capture of a senior former FARC guerilla commander wanted for violating a peace treaty that ended half a century of armed conflict.

Defense Minister Guillermo Botero announced the reward of around 930,000 a day after a peace tribunal canceled Hernan Dario Velasquez Saldarriaga’s parole following his failure to appear before it three times.

Facing accusations of murders and kidnappings, Velasquez’s whereabouts have been unknown since June 2018, when he left the southern jungle area where he was supposed to be re-entering society.

The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) was set up to try former combatants and hand out alternative sentences to prison time if they confess their crimes, compensate victims and pledge never to resort to violence again.

Violating those conditions carries a sentence of up to 20 years.

Velasquez, who is known as ‘El Paisa’ and headed the former rebel group’s main elite force, is the first rebel leader to be sanctioned by the tribunal.

He left the area with FARC’s former chief peace negotiator Ivan Marquez.

Both distanced themselves from the deal after rebel leader Jesus Santrich, wanted on drug trafficking charges in the US, was captured for extradition last April. — AFP

Suspect in Iran cleric’s murder ‘shot dead’

TEHRAN: A man accused of murdering a cleric in western Iran was killed in a firefight with police on Sunday, the semi-official news agency ISNA reported.

Behrouz Hajilouyi, a “thug with a criminal record,” allegedly shot Mostafa Ghasemi twice using a Kalashnikov rifle in front of the seminary where the Shiite cleric worked in Hamedan province on Saturday, ISNA said.

Hajilouyi confessed to the crime in a now-deleted post on his Instagram account, the Fars news agency reported.

Authorities are yet to put forward a motive for the killing. — AFP