A former director of Colombia's secret police was arrested last night and charged in connection with the murders of union leaders and academics while collaborating with far-right militias.
Jorge Noguera, former head of the Department of Administrative Security, who served under President Alvaro Uribe, is accused of handing over a hit list of human rights workers and trade union activists to the far-right paramilitaries.
At the time, he was in charge of domestic security. A number of the people on the list later were killed.
The arrest deepens a scandal that forced the resignation of Mr Uribe's foreign minister earlier this week and has badly shaken the president's political camp.
Mr Noguera, who as a regional campaign chief also helped get Mr Uribe elected in 2002, was arrested as he gave testimony in the chief federal prosecutor's office, said his lawyer. If convicted, he faces up to 40 years in prison.
Mr Noguera has been questioned by prosecutors at least five times and has denied wrongdoing.
He is being investigated in the killing of university professor Alfredo Correa de Andreis, one of the names on the hit list. Correa was investigating the forced displacement of peasants from rich lands along the Caribbean coast that were then taken by the paramilitaries..
Some 31,000 militia fighters have recently disarmed under a peace deal with the government that critics say is too lenient.