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HAVANA, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Colombian government and the guerrilla group, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), agreed on Friday to create a tribunal to prosecute war crimes committed during the country's decades-long armed conflict.
The parties announced the tribunal in a joint statement in Havana, where negotiators have been holding peace talks since 2012 to yield a final peace agreement to end the conflict that has killed more than 220,000 people.
A number of important world figures and bodies will be invited to help appoint 24 judges for the court, they said in the statement released by the Cuban and Norwegian delegations, which act as guarantors of the peace process.
Those parties invited to nominate judges would include Pope Francis, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Criminal Chamber of Colombia's Supreme Court, the International Center for Transitional Justice, and Colombia's State University System, among others.
Twenty of the judges will be Colombian, while four will come from other nations, according to the statement.
The agreement signed Friday states that the FARC and the Colombian army would abide by any decisions made by the court, concerning any crimes committed during the country's civil war.
Anyone admitting any crimes and confessing the truth would receive sentences of restricted freedoms of between five and eight years, but would not go to jail, according to the agreement.
Those who do not do so but are found guilty could receive sentences of up 20 years in jail, it added.
Furthermore, any FARC members who are not found guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, murder, kidnapping, or sexual abuse will receive a full amnesty, the statement said.
