Drug trafficking charges
Colombian lawyer clad in scuba gear protests ocean prison cell for warlord
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
BOGOTA, Colombia: Wearing scuba fins, a snorkel and a diving mask, a lawyer for a feared paramilitary warlord walked into Colombia's prison agency Tuesday to protest its decision to send his client to an oceangoing jail cell.
Attorney Gilberto Lozano, who wore the scuba gear with his business suit, filed a formal complaint saying he is unable to provide counsel to his client, Carlos Mario Jimenez, who allegedly continued to run a major drug ring from the prison where he was being held previously.
The INPEC prison agency banished Jimenez to a navy frigate off Colombia's northern coast last week citing unspecified threats on his life.
"It is of primary importance to respect and guarantee the constitutional rights (of prisoners)," Lozano told The Associated Press, "and the most fundamental of these is the right to a defense."
The government has vowed to extradite Jimenez, better known by his alias Macaco, to the United States to face drug trafficking charges.
