Headline

Meet Two Women Who Uncovered Clergy Sex Abuse In Colombia

Published

4 years ago

February 3, 2022

They were working for a Catholic bishop and had clear-cut orders from Pope Francis himself — probe reports of pedophile priests in a city in Colombia.

What these two investigators — two Catholic women with experience conducting criminal probes — found was an utter bombshell: a network of predatory clergymen that sexually abused at least 20 people, reportedly taking turns with one of them.

The abuse was committed in Villavicencio, a central Colombian city of half a million people with a cathedral in the town square, and parts of the surrounding area that fall under one archdiocese.

The pope says fighting clergy sex abuse is one of his priorities, and in 2019, he told the bishop of Villavicencio, Oscar Urbina, to investigate alleged abuses by priests.

The bishop turned to Olga Cristancho, 68, a seasoned former prosecutor, and Socorro Martinez, 59, who used to work in the attorney general’s office and has experience probing massacres in Colombia, a country that endured decades of conflict involving government forces, leftist rebels, right-wing paramilitaries, and drug traffickers.

But shortly after the church probe began, these two women distanced themselves from Urbina, suspecting a cover-up and launching an investigation of their own.

Cristancho said she was shocked by what she learned.

“I never dreamed of such a thing,” she told AFP. The women sleuths gathered evidence despite what they called interference from the bishop.

Among their finds: one man told them priests started abusing him at age 15 and took turns doing so.

Priests also used code words to communicate with each other, Cristancho said.

“One would say to the other, ‘I am sending you a CD,’ but that meant, ‘I am sending you that boy’,” Cristancho said.

The two investigators sent the conclusions of their effort to the Vatican in 2019 — and are still awaiting a response.

A book published last year by journalist Juan Pablo Barrientos is based on their work and goes further, with testimony implicating 38 priests in sexual abuse. The church tried in vain to censor it.

– ‘I felt dirty’ -The church has quietly sent away 20 of the priests accused of abuse. So far, two others are in prison after being convicted of abusing a 13-year-old choir boy.

“It will be up to the courts, both judicial and canon, to render a verdict,” said William Prieto, a priest and spokesman for the archdiocese, in the church’s only public comment on this scandal.

Colombian prosecutors opened their own investigation, and in late January, Cristancho and Martinez gave testimony. The attorney general’s office declined an AFP request for comment.

Urbina’s office also declined AFP requests for comment.

One of the victims is a man who for this story is being identified as Miguel.

As a child, his family used to vacation in Villavicencio, and his parents would send him to a rectory to see an uncle who was a priest.

There, a seminarian abused Miguel, forcing him into oral sex.

“He knew how to manipulate my uncle’s trust, my family’s trust, so that I would go to bed with him,” Miguel said in an interview during which he hid his face.

As an adult, he said he suffered from suicidal thoughts and depression.

Headline

Court Jails Two For Targeting President With Sorcery

Published

22 hours ago

September 15, 2025

Editor

A Zambian court on Monday sentenced two men to two years in prison with hard labour on charges of attempting to use witchcraft to kill the country’s president.

Mozambican national Jasten Mabulesse Candunde and Zambian village chief Leonard Phiri were arrested in December in possession of charms, including a live chameleon.

Police said they planned to use the charms to harm President Hakainde Hichilema, and they were charged with professing knowledge of witchcraft and possession of charms.

“The motive of the crime was to kill the head of state,” magistrate Fine Mayambu ruled in the capital Lusaka on Monday.

“The convicts were not only enemies of the head of state but all Zambians. I therefore sentence them to 24 months imprisonment with hard labour from the date of their arrest,” he said.

The prosecution said the men had been hired by the brother of opposition MP Emmanuel “Jay Jay” Banda, who is facing trial for robbery, attempted murder and escaping custody.

Headline

Two Nigerians Face Jail Terms In Liberia’s Piracy Trial

Published

22 hours ago

September 15, 2025

Editor

Criminal Court ‘D’ in Monrovia is set to deliver judgment this week in Liberia’s first piracy trial, involving two Nigerian nationals accused of hijacking a cargo vessel in the Gulf of Guinea.

According to court records, the defendants were arrested earlier this year after a Liberia-flagged ship was seized by armed men while transporting goods through international waters. The crew sent a distress signal, prompting international maritime forces to intervene.

The suspects were subsequently transferred to Liberian authorities under global maritime cooperation protocols.

According to Liberia’s news platform, Front Page Africa, the case has attracted attention because Liberia maintains one of the world’s largest open ship registries, yet prosecutions for piracy within its domestic courts have not previously occurred. Under international law, Liberia holds jurisdiction over crimes involving ships registered under its flag.

On Monday, proceedings took a new turn when defense lawyer, Cllr. Bestman Juah, informed the court that the defendants had admitted responsibility for the hijacking and were requesting a plea-bargain arrangement. State prosecutors did not oppose the request, leaving open the possibility of reduced sentences in exchange for full cooperation.

Resident Judge Mameita Jabateh-Sirleaf, who presides over Criminal Court ‘D’, will rule on whether to accept the plea deal and determine the sentencing framework. The ruling could also address deportation measures following imprisonment.

Criminal Court ‘D’ handles cases involving armed robbery, terrorism, hijacking, and other serious crimes, and the piracy trial represents a growing trend of transnational offenses being prosecuted within Liberia’s judicial system.
As of press time, the court has not announced the date for sentencing.

Headline

Spain Cancels $825m Israel Arms Deal Over Gaza

Published

23 hours ago

September 15, 2025

Editor

The Spanish government has cancelled a contract worth nearly 700 million euros ($825 million) for Israeli-designed rocket launchers.

The move comes after Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced last week that his government would “consolidate in law” a ban on military equipment sales or purchases with Israel over its offensive in Gaza.

The contract, awarded to a consortium of Spanish companies, involved the purchase of 12 SILAM rocket launcher systems derived from the PULS platform made by Israeli firm Elbit Systems, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Military Balance.

First reported by local media and the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the cancellation was formalised on Spain’s official public contracts platform on September 9.

The following day, Sanchez unveiled measures aimed at stopping what his leftist government called “the genocide in Gaza”.

It includes the approval of a decree imposing a ban on military equipment sales or purchases with Israel due to its military offensive in Gaza, launched after the Hamas attacks in October 2023.

Spain applied the ban as Israel stepped up its military onslaught.

Spain has also formalized the cancellation of another contract for 168 anti-tank missile launchers, which were to be manufactured under license from an Israeli company.

That contract, valued at 287 million euros, had been first reported by the press in June.

According to Spanish daily La Vanguardia, the government is undertaking a broader review to phase out Israeli weapons and technology from its armed forces.

Sanchez has emerged as one of Europe’s most outspoken critics of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Gaza policy.

Relations between the two countries have been tense for months.

Israel has not had an ambassador in Spain since Madrid recognized the state of Palestine in 2024.

Last week, Spain recalled its ambassador to Israel after heated exchanges over Sánchez’s new measures.

The Barcelona-based Delas Centre, a security research institute, estimated in April that since the start of the Gaza war, Spain had awarded 46 contracts worth $1.044 billion to Israeli companies, based on public tender data.