Colombian justice convicts former JEP official for delaying extradition in exchange for bribery

The Superior Court of Bogota has sentenced Julián Bermeo, former prosecutor of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), to prison on Wednesday after he was accused of receiving almost 40,000 euros for delaying the extradition to the United States of Jesús Santrich, a former FARC member.

On March 1, 2019, a video was released showing the former prosecutor negotiating, in a hotel in Bogota, the suspension of the extradition of former guerrilla Jesús Santrich. Three years later, a court has found him guilty of the crime of bribery, as reported by ‘El Espectador’.

For the ‘Santrich’ case, Bermeo has been found guilty for the crime of bribery. He will now have to wait until September 9 for a decision on the amount of time he will spend in prison.

However, the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office, which denounced the former prosecutor, has not been able to get the judge to convict Bermeo for influence peddling, as the High Court has not been able to prove such guilt.

On June 7, 2018, the US government formalized, before the Colombian Foreign Ministry, the extradition request for Jesús Santrich, a former member of the General Staff of the, according to the cited newspaper.