Colombia’s Superior Court of Cali was expected to deliver its second-instance ruling on Monday, September 28, in the case of Andrés Ricci, the man convicted of killing his partner, former national skating champion Luz Mery Tristán. Tristán was murdered on August 5, 2023, in a case that shocked the country and drew renewed attention to gender-based violence, known in Colombian law as “feminicidio” — the killing of a woman because of her gender.
According to reporting first published by the investigative unit at El Tiempo, appellate judges adjusted Ricci’s original sentence, ultimately upholding a prison term of 41 years and 8 months. In their written decision, the magistrates confirmed four key pieces of evidence that they say justified such a severe punishment, though the specific details were not yet made public at the time of this report.
The case has been closely watched in Colombia, both because of Tristán’s public profile as a former athlete and because of broader national concern over violence against women. Courts in the country have increasingly classified such killings under the feminicide statute, which carries harsher penalties than standard homicide charges when a victim is targeted specifically because she is a woman.
For the full breakdown of the four revelations cited by the Cali court, read the original report at El Tiempo.
Source: Los 4 estremecedores datos del feminicidio de Luz Mery Tristán que serán revelados por el Tribunal Superior de Cali (eltiempo.com).
Image: Patrick Feller, BY 2.0 (via Openverse).