Santiago Uribe Vélez acquitted in ‘Twelve Apostles’ Death Squad trial

Kirsty Brimelow KC, international law barrister, former Chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee (“BHRC”) and the Criminal Bar Association, and Camila Zapata Besso, international human rights barrister and member of BHRC, conducted an independent trial observation and drafted an interim report on behalf of the BHRC. Kirsty Brimelow KC attended hearings in Medellín between 2018 and 2021 and was the only international legal observer to attend all of the substantive trial hearings. She was joined by Camila Zapata Besso in 2021 for the final hearings, which were held online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

On 13 November 2024, Santiago Uribe Vélez was acquitted of all charges related to his alleged membership of an illegal armed paramilitary group, the ‘Twelve Apostles’, by a first-instance criminal court in Antioquia, Colombia. 

The Twelve Apostles was alleged to have been set up, from the 1990s, with the aim of killing those considered by them to be ‘social undesirables’, including sex workers and drug addicts, as well as those perceived to be linked to ‘subversive groups’, such as FARC guerrillas, operating in the Yarumal area, Antioquia. 

Santiago Uribe Vélez is the brother of former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez. He was accused of aggravated conspiracy to commit crime and aggravated homicide in the context of heading the Twelve Apostles. The trial took place over a period of three years between 2018-2021 at the Juzgado de Circuito Penal Especializado de Antioquia (specialised Penal Circuit Court) in Medellín. The final hearings were conducted during the Covid pandemic in early 2021. The acquittal comes more than three years later. It is understood that victims will seek to appeal the decision. 

The BHRC’s interim observation report (see here for the Spanish version) was published in 2021, following the final trial hearings. It raised concerns that there was little structured protection for witnesses in the case, and there was a reported history of threats towards, and killing of, witnesses by unknown actors. Moreover, three key witnesses did not give live evidence. In addition, the stigmatisation of human rights lawyers in Colombia and the impunity with which accusations and threats are made against them continued to be a serious cause for concern. A final report will be published once the judgment is available.