LENIENCY FOR COLOMBIAN KILLER OF U.S. DRUG AGENT

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - The confessed killer of a U.S. drug agent in
Colombia will serve less than five years of his original 30-year prison
sentence for the crime, judicial sources and local media said on Wednesday.

The judicial sources said a Bogota court ruled on Tuesday to slash more
than 80 percent off the 30-year sentence handed down in January against
Jorge Enrique Figueroa on grounds that it was ``excessive'' since the
killing stemmed from a legitimate act of self-defense.

Figueroa has said he shot and killed Frank Moreno, a Texas-born agent of
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), during a pre-dawn brawl
outside a Bogota bar in November 1998.

A passerby was also killed in the shooting, which police and judicial
officials maintain was unrelated to Moreno's DEA activities in Colombia.

Court officials could not be reached for immediate comment on the ruling,
which came on an appeal. But Figueroa's lawyer, Hugo Tovar, hailed it as a
triumph for justice.

A U.S. embassy spokesman said it was not immediately clear if the DEA would
appeal the ruling favoring Figueroa, who local press reports have described
as the son of a wealthy leather manufacturer.

But a report in Wednesday's editions of Colombia's leading El Tiempo
newspaper said Figueroa, who has already served 18 months in prison, could
walk free in another nine months.

His early release, after little more than two years behind bars, would stem
from benefits that are commonplace in Colombia's criminal justice system
including time off for good behavior, El Tiempo said.