The killings of eight religious and social leaders in Colombia have been confirmed following the discovery of mobile video footage.
In April of this year, eight individuals were shot and killed by an armed terrorist group believed to have originated from Columbia’s largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
The group were shown to be questioned, photographed and led in ropes and chains to a remote location in the Calamar Municipality, where they were killed.
Persecution watchdog Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) said families who asked the group’s representatives about the missing men were denied any information and warned to “consider the case to be closed".
The Colombian Attorney General’s Office confirmed the deaths in July after the discovery of a mass grave in a jungle area of the locality.
The investigation was progressed further after courts confirmed in November that footage had been discovered on the phone of Excehomo Pabón Amaya, a man with ties to the FARC.
The footage shows the group being transported along the Itilla River to a farm where the grave was later discovered. Mr Pabón Amaya was charged with forced disappearance and homicide, alongside additional charges.
CSW spokesperson Anna Lee Stangl, responded to the developments in the investigation, saying she “[applauded] the arrest” of the individual but urged the government to continue their investigation until all “have been held to account”.
The charity said the incident is part of a wider pattern of persecution against churches and religious leaders in Colombia amid the ongoing conflict. The government met with church representatives in November to address earlier cases of religiously motivated violence.
Stangl called on the authorities to continue investigating "the whereabouts of countless others who have been forcibly disappeared by illegal armed or criminal groups over the course of the country’s decades-long internal conflict".