(Photo: AFP)
The National Commission for Judicial Discipline dismissed and disqualified for ten years former judge Aleyda Saavedra for having committed the crime of malfeasance by action, committing conduct classified as “very serious fraud”, having tried to favor through a 2015 guardianship ruling members of the Army who sought promotion irregularly.
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The alleged irregularities were committed by the then First Criminal Judge with Trial Functions of Seville (Valle del Cauca) when she processed and decided a guardianship action filed by Fredy Alexander Cogua and Francisco Aurelio Tique against the National Army for not being promoted to rank of Captain.
The guardians invoked the rights to defense, due process, equality, presumption of innocence, good name, honor, fair work, access to information on public documents and access to the administration of justice and sought to be included in the list of promotions of the year 2014.
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Those officers, who had the rank of cadets in the Army at that time, alleged that despite having completed all the necessary courses and requirements to be promoted, they were not allowed to do so due to criminal proceedings against them.
“In the case of Lieutenant Cogua, for the events related to the development of the tactical mission called Metropoli 200 Fragmentary of the Fortaleza order, in which two (2) armed individuals were killed in the vicinity of the Jarillón del Río Cali” , says the guardianship presented.
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Right there, it is indicated that “on December 21, 2011, the Court 12 of Control of Guarantees of Cali revoked the security measure imposed on the officer and, instead, ordered his immediate release.”
“In the case of Lieutenant Tique, for the events that occurred in Riohacha (La Guajira), as a consequence of having used military intelligence against criminal gangs in the sector,” the guardianship continues. “Nevertheless, the Specialized Judge of Riohacha decreed the illegality of all the probative elements and physical evidence that the Prosecutor’s Office claimed to have against, which is why, the guardian affirmed, the acquittal is awaited by the Superior Court of Riohacha”.
Based on all this, former judge Aleyda Saavedra granted protection of the rights to due process and the presumption of innocence of the plaintiffs and consequently ordered the Ministry of Defense and the National Army Promotion Classification Board to positively qualify the officers mentioned for promotion.
However, on January 16, 2015, the National Army challenged that ruling, arguing that the judicial mechanisms had not been exhausted and that the former judge assumed powers that did not correspond to her because the facts that allegedly generated the violation of the rights of the two officers occurred outside their jurisdiction, which was in the municipality of Seville.
In addition, the military entity stated that the plaintiffs were working in Bogotá at that time and that the promotion study conducted by the Army Command was carried out in that same city, so there was no purpose in having filed the guardianship in the Court of Seville.
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Then, the Review Chamber concluded that the amparo request of the two officers was inadmissible for not having complied with the subsidiarity requirement and consequently revoked the sentence handed down by the former judge on January 9, 2015.
Additionally, a process was opened to the then gowned woman in the National Commission for Judicial Discipline for the irregularities committed in this case. That was how the Valle del Cauca branch proceeded to dismiss her and disable her for ten years.
It should be remembered that the former judge was captured in 2017 for having granted freedom through a right of Habeas Corpus irregularly to Francisco Pineda Paredes, an extraditable removed from the FARC list, which was requested by the Court of the Southern District of Florida. charged with the crime of drug trafficking.