By IANS/EFE,
Bogota : A criminal court judge was killed Thursday in the northwestern Colombian city of Medellin while waiting for a taxi, police said.
The suspected shooter of Judge Diego Fernando Escobar Munera fled the scene on a city bus, but was captured minutes later by police, Col. Adan Leon said.
Escobar, 45, spent 19 years in the judiciary and authorities are investigating the possibility that his murder was connected with one of the numerous cases he handled.
Another criminal court judge was gunned down last month outside his Bogota home by gunmen travelling on a motorcycle.
President Alvaro Uribe issued a statement denouncing the murder of Escobar and vowing not to permit a resurgence of the kind of violence against judges that was common in Colombia in the 1980s and ’90s.
The government offered a reward of up to 100 million pesos ($50,000) for information leading to the arrest of anyone involved in Escobar’s slaying.