Colombian government announced on Monday that it will reward about 500,000 U.S. dollars to a guerilla who helped a former congressman escape from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said that the young guerilla "Isaza", who is not charged with crimes against humanity, could receive an amnesty and use his money to go to France as refugee.
Isaza and the former congressman Oscar Tulio Lizcano, who has been kept hostage for more than eight years, fled a FARC's camp in western jungles and trudged for three days before reaching a military base on Sunday.
Santos said the Colombian government was estimating the amount of the reward, and it would be "around 1 billion Colombian pesos (about 500,000 U.S. dollars)."
Santos said that the prosecutor was studying the possibility of giving Isaza a conditional freedom, and Isaza had accepted the offer of asylum in France with his partner.
"So we think he will leave the country in a few days," Santos said.
After the escape of Lizcano, FARC still holds two other politicians and some 26 military chiefs as "exchangeable" hostages. According to official statistics, there are thousands of hostages held by the rebels and criminal groups of Colombia.
Source:Xinhua
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