La casación penal en la jurisdicción especial penal para la paz

Abstract

Criminal cassation is an extraordinary resource to attack sentences considered by the plaintiff to be illegal, as there are errors in proceeding, or in judging, the latter by direct or indirect means. The foregoing, based on what is stated in article 181 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Law 906 of 2004), this within the Colombian ordinary justice.

Within the procedural regulations of the JEP, we find the procedure contained in Law 1922 of 2018, where it establishes the steps to evacuate the proceedings before said Court and the rules for the filing of appeals such as replacement (article 12), appeal (articles 13, 14 and 43), complaint (article 16); In addition, there is an action to review convictions handed down (Article 52 A). We even observe the right to appeal convictions handed down for the first time, as stated in article 15 idem.

However, we do not find within said regulations the extraordinary appeal of cassation, which could generate uncertainty when reaching the instances of an adversarial trial where the appearing parties of the JEP do not accept responsibility, which should exhaust the pertinent instances to guarantee the due process. But what happens if within this system the sentences of the case are pronounced, and the ordinary resources are exhausted? Would the ruling automatically become final?

This questioning has not been resolved so far in the transitional justice.

As a legal problem, it is questioned: In the framework of the transitional justice of the Colombian peace agreement, does the extraordinary appeal of cassation proceed?