Ecuador court charges Colombian general with murder

[Judi Lynn]

Ecuador court charges Colombian general with murder
Monday, 06 September 2010 14:12 Adriaan Alsema

http://colombiareports.com.nyud.net:8090/pics/army/mario_montoya.jpg

An Ecuadorean court charges former Colombian army commander Mario Montoya with murder for his part in the 2008 cross-border attack that killed FARC leader "Raul Reyes" and 24 others.

The court allowed the charges against the general, now Colombia's ambassador to the Dominican Republic, but refused a request for an international arrest warrant against Montoya, prosecutor Carlos Jimenez told Ecuadorean media on Monday.

Because the Colombian attack on the FARC camp was not authorized by the Ecuadorean authorities, Colombia's then-military head Montoya and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, then-defense minister, are facing murder charges in the neighboring country.

The case against Montoya had earlier been dropped.

The general resigned his position as head of the army in September 2008, following revelations about the scandal of "false positive" killings, in which soldiers murdered civilians and reported them as rebels killed in combat.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/11693-ecuador-court-charges-former-colombian-army-commander-with-murder.html