US justice has condemned the former Colombian rebellion Farc to pay 36 million dollars in compensation for the kidnapping of Franco-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt between 2002 and 2008, according to judicial sources Thursday evening.
US justice has condemned the former Colombian rebellion Farc to pay 36 million dollars in compensation for the kidnapping of Franco-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt between 2002 and 2008, according to judicial sources Thursday evening. In accordance with a decision of a federal court in Pennsylvania on January 4, made public Thursday evening, Lawrence Delloye – also called Lorenzo, son of Ms. Betancourt born in 1988 from his first union with the Frenchman Fabrice Delloye – “is entitled to compensation of $12 million before it is tripled with attorneys’ fees and costs.”
To read : Ingrid Betancourt’s former jailer arrested in Colombia
In a separate press release, the American counsel for Mr. Delloye, of the firm Scarinci Hollenbeck, explained that the total amount of damages decided by the federal judge of Pennsylvania Matthew Brann thus amounted to “more than 36 million dollars “. .
For the Betancourt son, an “enormous emotional anguish”
Ingrid Betancourt’s son also has American nationality and was therefore able to file a civil complaint in the United States in June 2018, against 14 former leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), under a federal anti-terrorism law (Antiterrorism Act, ATA), accusing the rebellion of the “violation” of this extraterritorial legislation. In addition, the kidnapping of his mother caused Mr. Delloye – a young teenager in 2002 – “enormous emotional anguish” for years, noted the court.
Ms. Betancourt, 60 years old today, had been kidnapped on February 23, 2002 during the Colombian presidential election campaign by the Farc, before being rescued by the army six years later, on July 2, 2008. Once settled in France with his two children Mélanie and Lorenzo, “it was not easy for (Lorenzo) Delloye to reconnect with his mother. He continues to suffer from emotional anguish”, underlined the American judge in his decision. The former Franco-Colombian senator had claimed for years compensation covering the psychological damage caused by her long captivity.
A landmark 2016 peace accord between Colombia and Farc transformed the guerrillas into a legal political party and dramatically reduced violence, although many armed groups continue to operate in the country, including dissidents from Farc who have taken up arms.
And last November, the US State Department removed FARC from its blacklist of foreign terrorist organizations, but without changing its position on the legal proceedings against former leaders of the former Colombian guerrilla.
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