wrangling for a violent theft crime he did not commit, BosNewsLife monitored Thursday, September 8. Compass Direct, a Christian news agency, said Luis Vera was released by a court in one of Colombia’s leading commercial cities, Bucaramanga, following "a string of irregularities" in a case that one Bogota human rights lawyer said never should have been brought to trial.
Vera was detained November 26, 2004, when the then-23-year-old student ending his first semester at MedellÐœn’s Biblical Seminary of Colombia bought his family bus tickets to their home city, Bucaramanga.
At the bus station, police on a routine patrol, reportedly found a warrant for his arrest on charges of "firearms trafficking and manufacture, and aggravated theft." Although he did not match the victim’s verbal description of the culprit, he had been identified in a set of criminals photos that officers had shown in the Bucaramanga police station.
PICTURE TAKEN
The picture was taken in 2000 after Vera riding a motorcycle in Bucaramanga was hitting an 11-year-old boy who ran into the street. Vera took him to a clinic, where he died several days later. Although a prosecutor investigating the motorcycle wreck concluded that the child, not Vera, was at fault, police allegedly took the photo saying "it’s part of process."
That picture would haunt him four years later although the victim Wilson Silva Becerro, and his wife, who witnessed the 2002 crime, told the court that Vera was not the attacker.
Vera reportedly wrote in an e-mail that "[the judge] asked the plaintiff to confirm absolutely whether I was the person who attacked him," and the plaintiff answered, ‘In truth, he resembles him, but he wasn’t the one who attacked me.’" Nor did Silva’s wife apparently recognize Vera from the lineup of suspects.
COURT HEARINGS
The confession came after the victim failed to show up at court hearings to identify Vera as one of a gang of four armed muggers. It was unclear if security fears played a role in their absence from previous court procedures.
Despite the victim’s testimony last month that Vera was not the attacker, he remained under house arrest at his wife’s parents’ home in Bucaramanga, where the crime took place, until Tuesday’s ruling, Compass Direct said.
The September 6 ruling that set him free came after the prosecutor asked Judge Gladys Mora to acquit him of all charges. Vera said the prosecutor was so convinced of his innocence that "she acted as if she were my lawyer," Compass Direct reported.
PRAISING GOD
"Glory to God!" Vera was quoted as saying after his release. "Brothers, my joy is great to be able to prove my case before the justice system." Compass Direct said Bogota attorney Luis Abella described Vera’s case as demonstrating "that Colombians without money cannot speed up the administration of justice."
"It is a partialized justice that seeks results at the cost of human rights," Abella reportedly said. Vera’s defense bills are said to amounti to thousands of dollars, beyond the means of his family. However Vera saw a silver lining saying God "used" him to spread the Gospel to inmates during the first two weeks of detention. He estimates between 15 and 18 prisoners "accepted Christ as Savior", Compass Direct reported.
But before Vera and his family can carry on with their lives, he must visit every place where he was jailed since his arrest and demand that his photo be removed from every file and destroyed. "Because they have this photo of me, I’ll have more problems. Otherwise, any day of my life they could blame me for something else," he was quoted as saying.
It comes at a time of tensions in the South American nation. "Colombia is considered to be one of the most violent countries in the world. Guerrilla movements, right-wing paramilitary and drug-trafficking barons fight for control of the country [and] there are over 1 million internally displaced refugees," said Christian human rights group Open Doors. (With BosNewsLife Research and reports from Colombia).
