After 8 years in prison for “simple suspicion” in Tanzania, Africa, Andrés Felipe Ballesteros will be able to reunite with his family in Colombia, he has already been released.
News Colombia
The gray days for Andrés Felipe Ballesteros are ending; After 8 years of being deprived of liberty after a trip to Tanzania, Africa, on the occasion of his birthday, when he entered that country from which he wanted to discover its nature and culture, he was detained “out of simple suspicion”, now he returns to Colombia .
This was announced by Andrés Giraldo, through his Twitter account, informing all the people who have followed this case since he made it known.
Explaining precisely, that this October 21, 2022, at the El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá, at 2 in the afternoon Andrés Felipe Ballesteros, would be in Colombia.
Newsflash: Andrés Felipe Ballesteros manages to catch the KLM flight from Dar Es-Salam to Amsterdam tonight (Tanzania time). In this order of ideas, he arrives tomorrow, Friday, October 21, at El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá at 2:00 pm. come tomorrow
— The Anti-Tweeter. (@andrefelgiraldo) October 20, 2022
Help from heaven
The legal situation of Andrés Felipe has changed since last August when the national government became aware of the case. And, under the leadership of the legal secretary, Vladimir Fernández, he drew up a work schedule.
In it, he called meetings and established specific goals with the Ministries of Justice of foreign affairs, with the Embassy of Colombia in Kenya and with Juan Carlos Ballesteros, reaching an agreement between both countries for the repatriation of Andrés Felipe.
Said agreement corresponded to a fine of 120 million pesos, which his family would have to pay, in order to free his loved one.
Thanks to the collection through social networks, organized by Andrés Giraldo and contributions in general, the estimated amount was achieved.
life changed him
The life of Ballesteros, 36 years old, has changed completely since August 2014, when for his 28th birthday, he traveled to Tanzania, Africa.
The man from Cali was arrested “on suspicion” in the Tanzanian capital, and where he ended up spending eight years in prison.
At that moment, Andrés Ballesteros was taken to a police station. Not knowing the official Swahili language, he did not know what was happening and why they were accusing him.
After two days, he was confined in the Keko prison, a prison that, according to his brother Juan Carlos, is in subhuman conditions for the thousands of inmates who are deprived of their liberty.
They had to spend 5 years, to have a firm accusation, which occurred in 2019. But not for a specific charge either.
“I wanted to go to Africa. I wanted to get to know the paradisiacal islands of Tanzania, Zanzibar, and Mafia in the Indigo Ocean”, Ballesteros has always explained.
At the airport “for being Colombian,” they retaliated against him and accused him “for entering illegal goods for that country,” assured Juan Carlos Ballesteros, brother of Andrés.
The man from Cali who was imprisoned in Tanzania, does not have a conviction there, they never gave him clarity about what he was really accused of.
Regarding the “illegal envelopes” that he supposedly entered, there is also no clarity.
Now they have finally given him freedom after the millionaire payment.
