FORMER COLOMBIA LAWMAKERS SENTENCED

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- A court in Cali convicted two former congressmen
of accepting drug cartel money and sentenced them to five- and six-year
prison terms, authorities said Tuesday.

Jose Felix Turbay and Armando Holguin Sarria were sentenced Monday by
so-called ``faceless judges,'' whose identity is protected for security
reasons, said the chief prosecutor's office in Bogota.

Turbay, sentenced to five years, had been held in a police station since
his arrest in December. Holguin, sentenced to six years, surrendered to
authorities in April 1996 and was incarcerated in a Bogota prison, a
spokesman at the prosecutor's office said on condition of anonymity.

Both are members of President Ernesto Samper's governing Liberal Party.
Turbay was convicted of receiving $14,700 from the Cali drug cartel and
Holguin of accepting $147,000.

Prosecutors said criminal charges were still pending against Turbay for
allegedly accepting an additional $36,800.

On Feb. 26, Turbay's brother, former Comptroller-General David Turbay, was
arrested on similar charges.

More than a dozen former congressmen, former attorney general Orlando
Vasquez and ex-Defense Minister Fernando Botero have been convicted of drug
corruption as part of the same investigation.

Samper was implicated but absolved in June 1996 by a highly partisan
Congress of soliciting $6 million from the Cali cartel in election
contributions in 1994.