Senior Rebel Leader Gets 35 Years in Prison
A senior Colombian rebel leader was sentenced to 35 years in prison for aggravated kidnapping and rebellion, a justice official said.
Ricardo Palmera, also known as Simon Trinidad, was sentenced in the northern city of Valledupar after a trial in which he appeared via a video hookup from a U.S.-built prison north of Bogota.
Palmera was a top member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, when he was captured in Quito, Ecuador, in January. Palmera, 53, pleaded guilty to rebellion but denied that he abducted former Valledupar Mayor Elias Ochoa, who testified at the trial that Palmera had kidnapped him.
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