2009: The DAS wire-tapping and surveillance scandal

In 2009 various human rights defenders, among them the founder of DH Colombia, lawyer Jorge Molano, denounced that they were victims of a state policy to spy on human rights defenders, which was gravely affecting their guarantees to carry out their work, and their personal security.

As a result, in 2016 various members of the, by then decommissioned, DAS (state intelligence agency) were called to trial for illegal wire-tapping (“chuzadas”) and surveillance of journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders and members of congress who were in opposition of Álvaro Uribe Vélez’s government. Many of these cases against high-ranking ex State officials are represented by DH Colombia’s legal team, who continue to receive threats related to the cases to this day.

PBI has been accompanying the lawyer Jorge Molano since 2009 and then the Human Rights organization DH Colombia since 2016. DH Colombia is dedicated to the fight against impunity and assumes the individual or collective defense of victims of human rights violations.

In this video, Germán Romero – a lawyer and human rights defender within DH Colombia – tells us about an emblematic case related to the DAS wire-tapping scandal in which journalist and human rights defender Claudia Julieta Duque was recognized internationally as a victim of state torture at the hands of the DAS intelligence agency.