Colombian troops get jail time for murder

Six Colombian soldiers were given jail time for killing a mentally disabled man and then claiming he was a rebel, in an attempt to gain job benefits. The six soldiers, one of whom was an army major and another a lieutenant, were found guilty for the extra-judicial killing in March, the BBC reported Saturday. In 2008, the soldiers lured 26-year-old Fair Leonardo Porras to the town of Ocana in north-eastern Colombia with promises of a job, killed him and then claimed he was a rebel killed during clashes with government forces, the BBC said. Four troops received 30 years in prison each, while the major and lieutenant both received 50-year sentences. So-called "false-positive" murders have been a phenomenon in Colombia as the country enters its 48th year of civil war, the news report said, with 10 other men being lured to Ocana in similar ways who later died. The attorney general's office in Bogota is investigating more than 1,000 cases of extra-judicial killing.