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Photo, Jean-Pierre Gontard & Farc's leader Guillermo Cano - Image courtesy of El Espectador.com

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A humanitarian expert from Geneva is at the centre of a scandal surrounding the Colombian Marxist-guerrilla group, Farc. According to intelligence reports cited in Colombia, a Swiss envoy identified as Jean-Pierre Gontard carried hundreds of thousand of dollars belonging to the armed group.

Gontard, who is associated with The Graduate Institute for Development Studies (IUED) in Geneva, is being linked by the Colombian government to almost  US$500,000 seized from the Farc in Costa Rica.

Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos stated: “All I’m saying is that, that gentleman, Gontard, is going to have to explain why he appears in Raul Reyes’ emails“.

Santos makes reference to Raul Reyes, the Farc’s spokesperson and second-in-command killed recently during a Colombian military operative in Ecuador and whose laptop was confiscated. The minister refused to answer further questions.

The Swiss government reacted immediately through its ambassador in Bogota, Thomas Kupfer. In a press release printed in its entirety by “El Tiempo“, Kupfer says Gontard “is not a Swiss diplomat but an external adviser of the Swiss government seeking a humanitarian agreement.”

Kupfer recognizes that Gontard’s mission on behalf of Switzerland involves a great deal of independent work and “neither his actions nor his statements necessarily compromise the Swiss government.”

The Ambassador added that in 2000 Gontard successfully mediated the release of two workers of Swiss multinational Novartis who had been kidnapped in Colombia and that perhaps the money was related to a possible ransom payment and added that the Swiss government was “unaware” if this was the case or if Gontard had participated in such a transaction.

Updated, 10:35: Monday morning Daniel Vasella, head of Novartis, denied Colombian government reports that link Gontard to Farc money. Speaking to RSR, Swiss public radio, he says Gontard was only a “diplomatic intermediary” when the two Novartis employees were liberated.

Contrary to some reports in Geneva that cite Gontard’s role in operation “check,” the Swiss ambassador says Gontard did “not” play any role in the release of Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages. Rather, he says, it was by sheer chance that the Swiss and French envoys were in Colombia at the time.

• Related story, 4 July: Swiss radio: Betancourt and hostages not rescued but released