Criminal
Adversarial procedure under Ley 906 with transitional justice via the JEP
Ley 906/2004 introduced an accusatorial system with oral hearings, a prosecuting Fiscalía and control-of-guarantees judges. Separately, the 2016 peace agreement created the Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz (JEP), a transitional-justice jurisdiction with its own procedures for conflict-related crimes, offering reduced sanctions in exchange for truth and reparation.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — National, with the JEP as a parallel transitional jurisdiction
- Deadline — Detainee before a control-of-guarantees judge within 36 hours
- Deadline — Formulation of charges and trial subject to statutory maximum terms
Governing law
- Ley 599/2000 - Código Penal
- Ley 906/2004 - Código de Procedimiento Penal
- Acto Legislativo 01/2017JEP
In practice
The coexistence of ordinary criminal justice with the JEP is the distinctive feature: the JEP has priority over conflict-related conduct by former combatants and state agents, applies restorative sanctions, and its jurisdiction displaces the ordinary courts for those cases. The 36-hour rule for judicial control of detention is a constitutional guarantee in Article 28.