Three FARC members convicted for taking a U.S. citizen hostage in 2008

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Three FARC members convicted for taking a U.S. citizen hostage in 2008

2011-06-22 03:55:12 GMT+7 (ICT)

NEW YORK (BNO NEWS) -- Three members of Colombia's rebel group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) have been convicted for taking a U.S. citizen hostage in Panama in 2008, U.S. prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Edilberto Berrio Ortiz, also known as "El Gavilan," Alejandro Palacios Rengifo, also known as "El Gato," and Anderson Chamapuro Dogirama, also known as "El Tigre," were convicted for hostage-taking and hostage-taking conspiracy in a Manhattan Federal Court.

The three men were members of the 57 Front of the FARC, a U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization, and were found guilty on Monday. They were arrested in Colombia in December 2009 and extradited to the United States in late 2010 and early 2011.

According to the indictment, a U.S. citizen - whose name authorities have withheld - was kidnapped in Panama City, Panama on April 4, 2008. Ortiz, Rengifo and Dogirama guarded the victim at a FARC jungle camp for approximately ten months.

The FARC demanded ransom from the victim's relatives in the United States and threatened that if the payment was not received they would never see him alive again. The American citizen was released in February 2009 after the ransom was paid.

"For ten months that must have seemed like a lifetime for him and his family, an American citizen was held captive by the FARC, not knowing if he would live or die," said Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

The charges against Ortiz, Rengifo and Dogirama carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment but the United States assured Colombia that the defendants will not receive such term. The three co-defendants are scheduled to be sentenced on October 24.

The FARC was formed in 1964 and is structured as a military organization, with approximately 10,000 armed guerillas organized into seven "blocs," 68 numbered "Fronts" (including the 57 Front), nine named "Fronts," and four urban "militias."

The rebel group is dedicated to the violent overthrow of Colombia's democratically-elected government. The 57th Front operates in the territory within Colombia's Choco Department, which borders Panama.

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