Faithful attend a mass in the memory of two Catholic
priests who were murdered in Bogota, Colombia in January.
Colombia's prosecutors office says the two men hired hitmen
to kill them when at least one of them was diagnosed with
AIDS. (AP Photo/William Fernando Martinez, File)
Rev. Rafael Reatiga asked his parishioners to pray for
him and gave the choirmaster a list of songs for his funeral
shortly before he was found shot to death together with another
Roman Catholic priest, a Colombian prosecutor says.
Authorities initially suspected robbery when Reatiga's body
was found along with that of Rev. Richard Piffano, 37, in a
car in southern Bogota on January 27, 2011.
But on Tuesday (local time) prosecutor Ana Patricia Larrota
said investigators had determined that it was suicide by
hitmen in the year-old case: the two priests hired gunmen to
kill them after Reatiga discovered he had AIDS.
The priests gave members of a criminal gang the equivalent of
$US8500, said the chief investigator of the prosecutor's
office, Maritza Gonzalez, as two of the four alleged
assassins appeared before a judge for processing.
She said the two priests had originally planned to throw
themselves off a cliff into a canyon north of Bogota but
apparently lacked the nerve.
In addition to AIDS, Reatiga had syphilis and witness
testimony indicated he was a regular visitor to places
frequented by gays in central Bogota, Larrota told the judge
who processed the two alleged assassins on Tuesday.
Gildardo Alberto Penate and Isidro Castiblanco were charged
with aggravated homicide, said Larrota. Each faces up to 40
years in prison if convicted.
Three weeks before their deaths, Reatiga had transferred his
possessions to his mother. Piffano withdrew about $3700 from
his bank account on the day of his death, Gonzalez said.
Investigators said they located the alleged killers based on
telephone numbers the priests had called from their
cellphones in the days before their deaths. Authorities found
the stolen cell phone of one of the priests on a gang member
months after the killing.
Some of the numbers ended up belonging to a criminal band
involved in counterfeiting, fraud and arms trafficking, they
said. It allegedly supplied the killers, including two who
authorities say remain at large.
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