COLOMBIA: A COLOMBIAN JUDGE HAS ORDERED THE RELEASE FROM PRISON OF A FORMER CALI COCAINE CARTEL BOSS GILBERTO RODRIQUEZ
Record ID:
640684
COLOMBIA: A COLOMBIAN JUDGE HAS ORDERED THE RELEASE FROM PRISON OF A FORMER CALI COCAINE CARTEL BOSS GILBERTO RODRIQUEZ
- Title: COLOMBIA: A COLOMBIAN JUDGE HAS ORDERED THE RELEASE FROM PRISON OF A FORMER CALI COCAINE CARTEL BOSS GILBERTO RODRIQUEZ
- Date: 7th November 2002
- Summary: (W5) TUNJA, COLOMBIA (NOVEMBER 7, 2002) (REUTERS) MCU (Spanish) URIEL COCONUO, SECRETARY OF THE TUNJA COURT, SAYING "The dispatch of copies is done so that the conduct of any functionary can be investigated regarding the illegal privation of liberty of Orejuela from the moment that the judge in question pronounced the sentence until the moment that the judge pronounced habeaus corpus." SLV POLICE IN FRONT OF THE TUNJA COURT
- Embargoed: 22nd November 2002 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: TUNJA, COMBITA AND BOGOTA COLOMBIA
- Country: Colombia
- Topics: General,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA1SGBDBV77C8OUX9UYTVZAGXSI
- Story Text: A Colombian judge has ordered the release from prison
of former Cali cocaine cartel boss Gilberto Rodriguez
Orejuela.
A Colombian judge on Thursday (November 7, 2002) ordered
the release from prison of one of Colombia's most infamous drug
lords, former Cali cocaine cartel boss Gilberto Rodriguez
Orejuela, after serving less than half of a 17-year sentence
cut short for good behaviour.
Judge Luz Angela Moncada ordered Rodriguez Orejuela's
immediate release from the maximum security Combita prison,
granting a habeas corpus request that overrides legal efforts
by President Alvaro Uribe to keep the drug lord behind bars.
"The dispatch of copies is done so that the conduct of any
functionary can be investigated regarding the illegal
privation of liberty of Orejuela" said Uriel Coconuo,
Secretary of the Tunja Court, "from the moment that the judge
in question pronounced the sentence until the moment that the
judge pronounced habeaus corpus."
The release of Rodriguez Orejuela, 63, will anger the
Colombian government, which considers the 1995 capture of him
and his brother Miguel as one the as one of the biggest
triumphs in the U.S.-backed war on drugs.
Once known as the Chess Player for his ability to
outmanoeuvre authorities, Gilberto helped rule an underground
cocaine empire thought to have amassed him billions of dollars
in personal wealth throughout the 1990s.
He was found hiding in a closet in his hometown of Cali in
1995 after an exhaustive police manhunt, which later also
nabbed his brother. Miguel was also due to be released early,
but in a separate case this week a court sentenced him to
another four years in prison, for bribing a judge. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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