BOGOTA (AFP) — Two contract killers were sent to Quebec to assassinate the prime witness against the cousin of Colombia's president Alvaro Uribe, jailed for alleged links to paramilitary groups, media said Sunday.
The weekly Espectador published a letter from prosecutors sent to the witness Jairo Castillo Peralta, alias "Pitirri," alleging that the Colombian hitmen entered Canada using tourist visas, and planned to kill him.
The letter, dated April 22, urges Castillo Peralta to inform Canadian authorities of the situation in hopes of stopping them, and warned him to take security precautions.
The Supreme Court has been informed of the situation, the newspaper said.
An ex-paramilitary himself, Peralta accused the former president of the Senate, Mario Uribe, of having ties to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).
More than 60 politicians, most of whom belong to the president's party, have been implicated in the plot, including 32 current and former members of Congress imprisoned for having ties to the militants.
The outlawed paramilitary group, created originally to defend against leftist guerillas, has been accused of having killed thousands of Colombians.
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