Catholic priest who ran right-wing death squad arrested in Colombia
The Rev Oscar Albeiro Ortiz was convicted in absentia last year for organising ruthless militia made up of former paramilitaries
Colombian officials have announced the capture of a fugitive Catholic priest who was convicted in absentia last year of organising a killer far-right militia made up of members of a dismantled paramilitary bloc.
For nearly a decade from 2003, the Rev Oscar Albeiro Ortiz formed and ran an organisation engaged in murder, extortion and forced displacement, according to his sentencing document.
From his pulpit in San Antonio de Prado, a village near Medellín, Ortiz had accompanied members of the paramilitary bloc, then recruited them after the bloc was ostensibly disbanded under a peace pact brokered by the government of then-president Alvaro Uribe.
Associated Press in Bogotá
theguardian.com, Friday 31 January 2014 22.15 EST
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/01/priest-right-wing-death-squad-colombia-arrested
