-44inspection. In addition, the prosecutor requested that the supplementary register of
the Chalatenango Diocese should be inspected and subjected to an expert appraisal,
because the Bishop of Chalatenango had issued the “baptismal certificate of the
child, Ernestina Serrano Cruz, [...] in a new supplementary baptismal register for the
parish, since the files of the Parish of San José Las Flores had been destroyed.” On
August 20, 2004, the court accepted the prosecutor’s request.
48(74) On August 24, 2004, the Chalatenango Trial Court, the assigned prosecutor
and a graphology expert visited the Parish of San Juan de Dios to inspect tome 53 of
the baptismal records, where the baptismal registration of Erlinda Serrano Cruz
appeared. On that occasion, the judge drew up an official record, in which she noted
that the graphology expert had indicated that the “register consist[ed] of 600 pages
filled with different documents, with different handwriting and with much of the
writing crossed out.” The following day, the prosecutor considered it necessary to
practice “a physiochemical examination of the handwriting of this entry[,]to
determine whether there were several kinds of ink or any other element”; he
therefore requested “the seizure of tome 53, folio 482 of the baptismal [register,] so
that the Technical and Scientific Police Unit of San Salvador could carry out this
examination.” The court indicated in the record of the inspection that it had not been
possible to inspect the supplementary register of the Diocese of Chalatenango,
“owing to an error in remitting the official communications.”
48(75) On August 27, 2004, the Chalatenango Trial Court, the prosecutor and two
experts visited the Parish of San Juan Bautista in that city to inspect the baptismal
registers containing the entry relating to Erlinda and the supplementary register
which contained the entry relating to Ernestina (supra para. 48(73)) and to carry out
the physiochemical analysis of the former and the graphalogical analysis of the
latter. The expert appointed to carry out the physiochemical analysis and the
analysis of the ink, “to verify whether the ink used to register the baptism of the
child, Erlinda Serrano, [had been] altered,” indicated that different tones of ink were
used for different items in the said entry; he therefore asked the judge to seize the
register containing the entry on Erlinda, so “that [it could be] taken and analyzed by
the Technical and Scientific Police Unit of San Salvador.”
48(76) On August 27, 2004, the Chalatenango Trial Court, based on Article 183 of
the 1973 Code of Criminal Procedure, which refers to the seizure of “objects or
instruments relating to a crime,” requested the Bishop of the Diocese of
Chalatenango to hand over tome 53 of the baptismal register containing the entry
relating to the baptism of Erlinda. On August 30, 2004, the court and the prosecutor
seized the said tome of the baptismal register and delivered it to the Technical and
Scientific Unit of the National Civil Police (supra para. 48(75)).
48(77) On September 2, 2004, the Technical and Scientific Unit of the National Civil
Police forwarded to the Chalatenango Trial Court the result of the graphalogical and
physicochemical analysis of tome 53 of the baptismal register regarding the
registration of the baptism of Erlinda Serrano Cruz, and also tome 6 of the
supplementary baptismal register regarding the entry relating to the baptism of
Ernestina Serrano Cruz (supra para. 48(73) and 48(74)). With regard to the
inspection of the former, the expert in the analysis of questionable documents
concluded that “the form certifying the baptism of the child, ERLINDA SERRANO, has
been completed with two types of handwriting [… and] the support [(paper …] has
been altered in the area above where the words ‘Dionisio Serrano’ appear.”
Regarding the entry for Ernestina Serrano Cruz, this expert stated that he did “not