Front Line is deeply concerned following reports of death threats made against lawyer and human rights defender José Humberto Torres, who works with Fundación Comité de Solidaridad con los Presos Políticos – FCSPP (Political Prisoners Solidarity Committee). José Humberto Torres has provided legal representation for many human rights defenders and political prisoners in Colombia over the past 27 years. He attended the Fourth Dublin Platform for Human Rights Defenders, organised by Front Line on 22-24 November 2007.

Further Information

06/12/2007 On 15 November 2007, former paramilitary commander, Edgar Ignacio Fierro Flores (also known as Don Antonio), admitted during a court hearing in Barranquilla that he had ordered the assassination of José Humberto Torres in 2004, and that that command still remained in force. Flores stated that José Humberto Torres remained a 'legitimate military target' due to his supposed links with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). José Humberto Torres does not have a link with the FARC, and his human rights activities have been recognised by the Colombian Interior and Justice Ministry and the Inter-American Commission of Human rights. Flores also stated that he would be unable to carry out the assassination as José Humberto Torres travelled a lot. One of the paramilitaries ordered to carry out the assassination, El Zarco, has as yet not been demobilised and allegedly leads one of the newly formed paramilitary groups, the Black Eagles (Aguilas Negras), which is responsible for numerous threats directed at human rights organisations in Colombia in recent times.

Front Line is concerned that these threats place José Humberto Torres in grave danger. Although his work in defence of human rights has been recognised by both the Colombian Ministry of the Interior and Justice and the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, he has been subject to serious threats over the course of the last three decades. In 2004, a Regional Military Intelligence Unit (RIME) of the Colombian Army requested that the local prosecutor bring charges against him for contempt of court, a request which was denied by the prosecutor due to lack of evidence to substantiate the allegations. José Humberto Torres has been forced into exile twice due to fears for his safety and that of his family, first in 1991 and later in 2004. Since his return to Colombia in 2005, José Humberto Torres has repeatedly requested that the Colombian government provide the protection measures sanctioned by the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights to improve his security and that of his family, but these have not been provided as of yet.