Bogotá.- As a minor, the perpetrator of the assassination of Colombian senator and presidential pre-candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay, was sentenced this Wednesday to seven years of deprivation of liberty for the crimes of attempted murder and manufacturing, trafficking, carrying or possession of firearms.
The Prosecutor’s Office detailed in a statement that due to the sanction “the minor must remain seven years deprived of liberty in a specialized care center”.
According to the authorities, the hitman is a 15-year-old whose name is kept confidential due to his minor status and who was caught in the act on June 7 in Bogotá, minutes after the attack against the senator of the right-wing opposition party Centro Democrático.
The sentence, issued just 80 days after the shooting in which Uribe Turbay suffered serious head injuries that caused his death on August 11, is due to the fact that his case was processed by the Adolescent Criminal Responsibility System, which in Colombia judges young people aged 14 to 18, with sentences of up to eight years in specialized centers.
Lawyer Víctor Mosquera, representing the Uribe Turbay family, pointed out that “under the Child and Adolescent Law, one of the highest sanctions was imposed on the minor” who committed the crime.
“We respect the decision, but that sanction never equates to the life it took or the pain caused. This law encourages crime to use minors without real and effective punishment,” Mosquera stated on X.
Participation of the Minor in the Crime
The Prosecutor’s Office indicated that after being convinced to carry out the attack, the minor was taken to the Modelia neighborhood, where Uribe Turbay was holding a rally, in a car driven by Carlos Eduardo Mora González, one of the six people arrested for this crime.
The young man “received a Glock 9-millimeter pistol from Elder José Arteaga Hernández”, who was also arrested and is accused of coordinating the attack.
“Later, he got out of the vehicle, walked to El Golfito park where the victim was participating in a political rally and shot him. In the escape through the streets of the sector, the teenager was intercepted by members of the pre-candidate’s security scheme, and placed at the disposal of the authorities for his prosecution,” added the Prosecutor’s Office.
The sanction issued by the knowledge judge of the Adolescent Criminal Responsibility System is of first instance and “the legal remedies proceed against it”, according to the information from the Prosecutor’s Office.
