The Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP) expressed its deep concern about how the Colombian Attorney General's Office is handling the case of Carlos Arturo Landázuri, alias “El Gringo,” accused of the killing of journalists Paul Rivas, Javier Ortega, and Efraín Segarra, of the Ecuadorian newspaper El Comercio, in 2018.
In a Dec. 6 statement, FLIP said that, despite the Attorney General's Office classifying the case as “of national significance,” its procedures have not been carried out diligently. As an example of “serious and unacceptable shortcomings” in the process, FLIP recalled when, last year, the prosecutor failed to present physical evidence at the hearing for the request for pretrial detention for the accused. Landázuri is currently detained, but not for the journalists' murders; rather, he is being held for his alleged involvement in a massacre in Colombia, the organization said.
The FLIP warned about a hearing due to the expiration of legal deadlines in the other case against Landázuri, which could result in the defendant's release and affect the ongoing investigation into the murder of the journalists.
“We request that the judge overseeing the case […] prioritize scheduling the pretrial detention hearing in the case of the murder of the members of Ecuador's El Comercio news team,” said the FLIP. “This is essential to ensure that those involved are brought to justice, so that this crime does not go unpunished.”
