The murder of a 15-year-old girl in the middle of an argument by her 21-year-old boyfriend in Cimitarra, Santander, on July 16, is one of the latest femicides in Colombia. between January and May of this year, the Institute of Forensic Medicine already had 48 cases.
(For context, we recommend reading: Femicide: what is it and how does the law protect women?)
The figure is not only alarming, as this means that there are almost 10 cases in each month of this year;Fundación Femicides Colombia counts 134 cases this year, but due to delays in the process, the aforementioned attackers may be releasedIn fact, the Attorney General’s Office is currently conducting a special pursuit of 64 criminal cases of femicide in Bogotá, and those under investigation in this case will be released from prison in the coming days as their terms expire.
(You may be interested to read: A man would kill his partner of 15 years in the middle of an argument)
EL TIEMPO determined that as 64 cases are pending trial in the first half of this year, the Ministry of Public Affairs will ask judges to schedule hearings more quickly and agree measures to protect victims. Cases that pose a risk to freedom of persons detained since 2020 protect the Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor, because according to article 307 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the meaning of deprivation of liberty measures in general, the fault spreads.
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Currently, the oversight of the supervisory body for possible liberties is concentrated in Bogota, but this is not unique to the country’s capital, as the Colombian Femicide Foundation denounces.
The director of the foundation and lawyer Yamile Roncancio Alfonso stated that the defendants had to establish guardianship to prevent their release due to delays in their prosecution; they are even about to open another case so that the accused who kidnapped and killed a woman in Magdalena will not be released.
(You may be interested to read: Constitutional Court protects victims who report sexual violence)
Stating that the crime he was tried for was committed in 2021 and that the victim was a young woman who had a short-term relationship with the accused, he said, “He already had two daughters and he threatened him repeatedly if he did not continue the relationship. They would kill their daughter. He prevented her from working, forced her to ask for money from her parents for herself, and kidnapped her for trying to break up with her and kept her locked in the house for 6 days; He eventually manages to get out and flee to another town, but finds him, takes him to a hotel, and brutally kills him there.‘ he told me.
By this year, however, the man had been apprehended, and despite several attempts at the impeachment hearing, his “connection” and claims hearing was not possible at the three places of detention he was in. Release due to expiration of conditions,” explained the lawyer, assuring that these situations were not unusual.
Carolina Solano, deputy director of Justice of the Sisma Mujer organization, acknowledged that liberties are frequent because of termination in such cases, as well as domestic violence, as prosecutors are often not trained for these cases or because of institutional incompetence. delaying strategies.
In fact, in 2019, Sisma accompanied two processes in which the defendant’s freedom was demanded, one for femicide that the judge did not allow, and the other for the attempted femicide in which the defendant was released, which represents a very high figure. risk to the victim.
In addition, Solano questioned that although prosecutors and judges may decide on protective measures such as the release of the assailant when faced with cases that pose a risk to women, they rarely do so.The law states that judges and prosecutors dealing with these types of cases have the capacity to issue protective orders, but what they do is file a complaint with the Family Police Station so it’s settled and delayed.‘, he explained.
(We invite you to read: Constitutional Court protects victims who report sexual violence)
Criminal lawyer Dalila Henao, criminal lawyer Dalila Henao, criminal lawyer Dalila Henao pointed out that today the Colombian legal system does not specifically devise any mechanism to speed up any process for any crime, although the deadlines expire and the statute of limitations applies. are tools to pressure judicial officials to expedite procedures, “in many cases their capacity to respond is greatly exceeded by their assigned workload. We are not talking about the inadequacy of the existing legal instruments, but a structural problem in the functioning of justice,” he said.
In this regard, Attorney General Margarita Cabello noted that in order to evade these freedoms, the control body pursues cases, requests that they be prioritized and confirms that delays in the defense are not taken into account.
“It is important that the gender approach is applied not only in evaluating the evidence, but also in due diligence to make the processes faster.and in all procedural activities, because the detention measures in these cases are aimed at protecting the victims,” he said.
(We invite you to read: ‘This is no small article and that’s it’: Cabello responded to Petro’s suggestion)
He added that while the Judiciary Branch has made progress in the gender perspective, more efforts are needed. For this reason, the Attorney General’s Office also provides training to its officers on issues such as “evaluation of evidence with a gender discrimination approach”, and I have given guidelines for the implementation of the gender approach by prosecutors at all procedural stages. submission of requests for the implementation of the gender approach within processes of violence against women as part of the due diligence task.”
Within the scope of the Attorney General’s National Strategy Against Gender-Based Violence, priority was given to monitoring possible cases of freedom, as well as knowing the process of 143 femicides, attempted femicide and domestic violence across the country. Of these priority processes, 85 are femicide, 19 attempted and 39 domestic violence investigations.
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For femicides, the control agency prioritized 10 processes in Bogotá and 10 in Valle del Cauca; 9 each in Antioquia and Cesar; 8 in the Atlantic; 7 in Santander and 6 in Sucre. For attempted femicide, special monitoring is carried out in 5 processes in Bogota, in 2 processes in Cundinamarca, Córdoba and Atlántico, respectively, among others. As for domestic violence, priority was given to 9 cases in Bogota, 5 cases in Cundinamarca, and 3 cases in Valle del Cauca and Boyacá.
Likewise, this year alone, the Office of the Advocacy of Child, Adolescent, Family and Women’s Rights has sent 282 warnings to municipal ombudsmen about the imminent risk of femicide so that these organizations will be managed by municipal authorities. necessary protection measures for victims.
“Violence against women is a way of perpetuating gender stereotypes, so it is necessary to attack the structural causes of inequalities, social gaps and sexist culture, as well as the existence of effective care pathways that allow for rapid response to attention. for victims of their first acts of violence. We have an active comprehensive care line to support them and voice what is needed,” says Cabello, attorney.
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Source: Exame
