They ask not to aggravate the sentences imposed for the rape of children – Courts – Justice

The Constitutional Court has been seized of a lawsuit on the constitutionality of the law, which criminalizes badual abuse of children under 14 years.

The complainant is Jorge Augusto Escobar Porras, sentenced to 12 years and 8 months in prison for badual acts with a minor under the age of 14, who he argues that part of the Penal Code (Law 599 of 2000) violates the right to due process and the right not to be tried twice in the same way.

According to him, when sections 208 and 209 of the law provide criminal penalties for badual relations and badual acts directed against children under 14, it is a crime because of the The age of some, so that, according to him, it makes no sense that in section 211 the act is committed "on persons who are vulnerable because of their age".

Escobar was captured in 2014 and is imprisoned in Modelo prison in Bogotá, where he filed a complaint, in which he also He argues that the application of aggravating circumstances to this type of punishment has "disastrous" effects on prison overcrowding, which is 50% in the country.

However, his application has already been impeded, the Attorney General's Office and the Ministry of Justice opposing the application submitted to the Court.

In the first place, the Public Prosecutor's Office recalled that minors are the object of special protection by the State; In addition, he stated that the aggravation of badual crimes because of age did not violate the Constitution or other articles of the Penal Code, because, according to the prosecutor's office sent to the Constitutional Court, This aggravating circumstance applies to population groups such as the elderly or minors aged 15 to 18 years.

Moreover, the Ministry of Justice told the high court that Escobar's criticism, rather than highlighting a confrontation between a norm and the Constitution, reveals a personal disagreement by the application that judges and magistrates make when setting the amount of the penalties.

Therefore, he found that "all the accusations made by the plaintiff lacked certainty, clarity and specificity" and asked the Court to declare itself barred in this case.

The trial has already been distributed to the Constitutional Court and the trial concerned the magistrate Luis Guillermo Guerrero Pérez, who was to present a document to the other magistrates.

However, Regarding the sentence inflicted on Escobar in 2017, the Supreme Court will have the last word. In fact, he appealed against his conviction, which was upheld in the second instance by the Superior Court of Bogotá, for which he lodged an appeal on points of law, which must now be settled by the highest court.

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