Colombian paramilitaries extradited to the U.S., where cases are sealed

[Judi Lynn]

Colombian paramilitaries extradited to the U.S., where cases are sealed
By Oriana Zill de Granados and Chisun Lee
ProPublica
Saturday, September 11, 2010; 12:21 AM

Since 2006, more than a dozen of Colombia's most notorious paramilitary leaders have been extradited to the United States to face drug trafficking charges in U.S. District Court in Washington.

The extraditions stunned Colombians, who had hoped that testimony from the men, given as part of a national amnesty program, would help expose the truth about two decades of vicious murders, assaults and kidnappings. In videotaped confessions in Colombia, one had taken responsibility for more than 450 slayings.

But outrage over the extraditions reached a boiling point earlier this year when U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton blocked public access to seven of the paramilitary leaders' cases, erasing virtually every trace of their existence.

There is no way to know if the men have negotiated lenient sentences - or if they are even still in custody. An eighth defendant, accused in Colombia of murdering a judge, was released on his own recognizance, records show, after his cousins in College Park vouched for him.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/11/AR2010091100080.html?wprss=rss_politics