Magistrates of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), Ana Manuela Ochoa, Camilo Andres Suarez and Juan Ramon Martinez, attends the reading of sentences against former FARC commanders for kidnappings, in Bogota, Colombia September 16, 2025. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez

By Julia Symmes Cobb

BOGOTA (Reuters) - A special Colombian court created under a 2016 peace deal on Thursday sentenced 12 former soldiers to eight years of reparations work for their role in the extrajudicial executions of 135 people.

The sentences were the first given to former members of the military by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, or JEP, which is trying leaders from both the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, rebels and the military for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Earlier this week, the same court sentenced seven former leaders of the FARC guerrillas to a maximum of eight years of reparations for the group's policy of kidnapping for ransom.

"With this sentence imposed on members of the military, we recognize and insist on a truth that for years was denied, hidden and silenced," JEP president Alejandro Ramelli said before the decision was read, thanking the victims who participated in the case.

"Those who will be sentenced today have had to face justice, and the country's victims, they have faced the error that they committed," Ramelli said. "In many cases, they revealed truths that their own families did not know."

At least 6,402 people were killed in so-called "false positives" murders nationwide between 2002 and 2008, according to the JEP, though victims groups say the figure is higher.

Soldiers, eager to earn benefits like promotions and time off, lured civilians with promises of work, then killed them and reported them as rebels killed in combat the court said. Some of the victims had intellectual disabilities.

Dozens of army officials have been detained and convicted for "false positives" under the regular justice system and some of the victims, whose remains have not been returned to their families, are considered disappeared.

The court said that those sentenced on Thursday committed 135 "false positives" murders and disappearances when they were members of the La Popa battalion, which operated on Colombia's northern Caribbean coast, between January 2002 and July 2005.

Among the victims were members of the Wiwa and Kankuamo Indigenous communities, whose ancestral territory became a hub of drug trafficking activities by both right-wing paramilitaries and leftist guerrillas beginning in the 1990s.

Some of the men will only serve five years because they have already done prison time for the killings after convictions in normal courts, Magistrate Ana Manuela Ochoa said during her summary of the sentence, flanked by four other judges.

The 12 include retired majors and lieutenants, as well as lower-ranking soldiers. They are: Guillermo Gutierrez Riveros, Heber Hernan Gomez Naranjo, Efrain Andrade Perea, Manuel Valentin Padilla Espitia, Carlos Andres Lora Cabrales, Eduart Gustavo Alvarez Mejia, Jose de Jesus Rueda Quintero, Elkin Leonardo Burgos Suarez, Elkin Rojas, Juan Carlos Soto Sepulveda, Yeris Andres Gomez Coronel and Alex Jose Mercado Sierra.

RECOGNITION OF RESPONSIBILITY

All have recognized their responsibility for the killings and provided a truthful and exhaustive account of their actions, the JEP said.

Six infrastructure projects, some specifically for Indigenous communities, are the reparations approved for those convicted.

Three other former officials from La Popa did not accept their responsibility in the crimes, the court said, and could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

A truth commission set up as part of the peace deal held repeated sessions about "false positives".

In one event, former President Juan Manuel Santos asked forgiveness for the killings, which took place partly during his time as defense minister under ex-President Alvaro Uribe.

Uribe, unlike all of Colombia's other living former leaders, never appeared at any commission event, instead holding a one-on-one meeting with the commission's head.

Uribe is currently appealing a 12-year conviction in a long-running case about his connections to paramilitaries.

Some former soldiers have already begun to participate in reparations, working alongside former rebels, which will be counted toward whatever sentences they may face.

Reparations projects allowed by the JEP can include building roads, planting trees, assisting with the removal of landmines and the search for disappeared people.

Those convicted have limits on their freedom of movement and are monitored by the court.

The JEP is investigating war crimes through eleven cases, including ones focused on sexual violence and child recruitment.

The half-century conflict killed at least 450,000 people.

(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by David Gregorio)