WASHINGTON – An appeals court has upheld the prison sentence of a former high-ranking leftist rebel who pleaded guilty to supporting a foreign terrorist organization.
Nancy Conde Rubio was sentenced in 2010 to 11 ½ years in prison after entering her guilty plea. Prosecutors said she led a finance-and-supply operation for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, also known as FARC.
Rubio appealed the sentence soon after, claiming she didn't enter into the plea knowingly and intelligently because her first language is Spanish.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia unanimously brushed that aside Friday. They noted she received a Spanish translation of the plea and had an interpreter present at the plea and sentencing hearings.
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