CRITICS OF COLOMBIA'S peace deal with the FARC rebel group, which in 2016 ended a 52-year war with the government, complain that it lets the guerrillas off too easily. The fault, in their view, lies with the "special jurisdiction forpeace" (JEP), an institution set up under the accord to investigate and judge crimes committed during the conflict. The Democratic Centre party, founded by Alvaro Uribe, who fought the FARC as Colombia's president in the early 2000s and is the mentor of the incumbent, Ivan Duque, claims that the JEP'S purpose is to go after government soldiers while securing impunity for farc criminals. On January 28th the JEP proved the critics wrong. In its first ruling since its founding four years ago, it indicted eight farc leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity. All were connected with the group's practice of taking hostages and ransoming them to finance its war against the state. Among the alleged culprits are the former top commander, Rodrigo Londono, known as Timochenko, and two leaders who are now members of Congress. Seven of the eight (one has died) have 30 working days from the ruling either to accept or deny the accusations. If they accept, the JEP will restrict their freedom, perhaps by ordering them to de-mine land or build schools in war-torn areas. If they reject the charges, the JEP'S investigative unit will seek to prove them in a trial. If the defendants are convicted, the JEP'S judges could sentence them to 20 years in prison.
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