Colombian Rebel Chief Convicted of Killing US Activists
Briceno, chief of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was convicted of co-masterminding the kidnapping and killing of three US activists in 1999, a Colombian court said Tuesday.

The bodies of the activists, who were helping set up a rural school system in eastern Colombia, were found in a Venezuelan pasture just across the Colombian border one week after they were kidnapped in February 1999.

Briceno, who is still at large, was sentenced to 39 years in prison for aggravated homicide, kidnapping for extortion and rebellion, the Penal Court of Arauca said in a statement.

Briceno's brother, German Briceno, who was the FARC commander in the eastern Arauca state, was also convicted of masterminding the killings in 2001.

Neither of them has been captured.

However, the FARC said neither Briceno nor any other commanders gave the order to kill the activists.

FARC leaders blamed the murders on its gunmen who were acting on their own.

The FARC, with about 17,000 fighters, is the largest armed rebel groups in Colombia and controls nearly 40 percent of the territory.