PBI-Colombia calls for quick and effective investigations following attacks against CAJAR lawyers

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has accompanied the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CAJAR) since 1995.

El Espectador reports:

“Despite the fact that there are currently protection measures from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on the Lawyers’ Collective, the attacks against their lawyers, defenders of serious human rights cases, continue.

On Monday 8 January, Santiago Salinas reported having been the victim of a physical attack against him and his wife, Erika Isabel Prieto Jaime, also a human rights defender.

The incident took place in a supermarket on 26th Street in Bogotá at 3:10 p.m. The couple noticed the presence of two women talking about them and pointing at them. Prieto’s reaction was to record with his cell phone to record the situation, because they have not already suffered multiple aggressions and threats against their lives.

The lawyer says that he immediately recognized the women and recalled that they had been present in different institutional spaces of the Cajar, generating scandals and sabotage. But this time, as seen in a video, they did much more than verbal aggression.

When the couple began to record the two women, the lawyer details, “they reacted violently and began to shout that they knew who I was, they mentioned the place where my wife worked and precise information about other members of the Cajar.”

In addition, they say that they were later accused of having hacked their cell phones and assured that they all have a complaint in the Prosecutor’s Office.

Likewise, Salinas says: “They yelled at those present and the security people to call the police. I started recording after that and the older lady takes a coffee that she had in her hand that is quite hot and throws it at me.” As a result, the lawyer suffered burns to his chest.

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