(ii) the “serious contradictions in the explanations given by the commandos who were part of the delta eight squad in charge of room “I” concerning how the alleged confrontation had unfolded”; (iii) “the bodies of the two MRTA members presented bullet wounds whose trajectory could be traced from behind, in a forward direction, and this cannot be explained from the statements about a face-off”; (iv) forensic evidence is not consistent with the explanations about a face-to-face confrontation, and (iv) there is no evidence that the alleged victims were armed, as the report on identification and removal of the bodies does not indicate that any weapons were found near these two bodies even though weapons found near the bodies of other MRTA members are documented. They also noted that in his statement before the domestic courts, “Luis Ernesto Gálvez Melgar, a member of the explosives deactivation unit, said that in his view, the people whose bodies he observed in room ‘I’ had died without putting up any resistance, as he had not seen any weapons near them at all, and besides, the positions of their bodies suggest the same thing.” 324. The State held that the deaths had taken place in combat as a result of gunshots fired when the armed guerrillas had advanced through the hallway and approached the hostage evacuation area. Specifically, the State said that Hidetaka Ogura could not have seen or heard what he was reporting, as there was a great deal of noise and smoke in room “I”, and from the far end of the balcony where he was evacuated, there was no line of sight into the door of the room. 325. The Court will now analyze the plausibility of the hypotheses brought, first, by the Commission and the representatives of the alleged victims, and second, by the State, in light of evidence in the case file and bearing in mind the Court’s particular role, as this is not a criminal court nor does it hold to the same standards of evidence as criminal proceedings (supra paras. 280 and 282). A) Eyewitness evidence 326. The August 20, 2001 letter that Hidetaka Ogura sent to the judiciary said that he saw the following at the time he was evacuated: About ten minutes after we heard the first explosion, members of the military command entered room ‘I’, one from the terrace, and the other through the main door of the room. There was much shooting of guns in the room by the military. When the shooting in room ‘I’ ended, we waited a few more minutes to leave the residence building until the members of the military command told us to go down the stepladder they had set up on the terrace. I was the next to last to take the ladder. […]. As I turned to take the ladder on the terrace, I was facing the main door to the room. When I turned, I saw that two MRTA members were surrounded by the military, a woman called ‘Cynthia’ and a man I could not recognize, but he was short in stature and surrounded by tall soldiers. Before I climbed down the ladder, I heard ‘Cynthia’ screaming something like: ‘Don’t kill him’ or ‘Don’t kill me’.403 Letter from Hidetaka Ogura to the judiciary of Peru, August 20, 2001 (evidence file, volume I, annex 5 to the case submission brief, folios 112 to 113). 403