disappearance until the year 2011, it violated Article III of the IACFDP and was therefore responsible for the
late codification of the crime.
167.
Furthermore, on September 11, 2017, Federal Criminal Oral Court No. 1, in the framework of the case
known as “Orletti III,” convicted two former agents of Argentina’s Federal Police and sentenced them to six
years of prison as the co-perpetrators of the crime of unlawful deprivation of liberty, aggravated by the use of
violence and threats, to the detriment of Victoria Grisonas. The court confirmed that both former police officers
spearheaded the operation carried out on September 26, 1976. Although it was confirmed that Mario Julien
was killed in the framework of this operation, the court acquitted the former police officers for the crime of
felony murder with malice aforethought with respect to Mario Julien because of the absence of evidence
regarding their direct participation in the homicide. On February 27, 2019, the Fourth Chamber of the Federal
Criminal Court of Cassation partially overturned this judgment and sent back the proceedings to the lower
court (a quo). The court overturned the acquittal of Mario Julien because it deemed it was arbitrary.
168.
As established in Section B above, in the case of Mario Julien the three constitutive elements of evidence
for forced disappearance are present, and the existence of clues to his death does not alter this legal
characterization, because his mortal remains have not as yet been found, identified, or delivered to his next of
kin. Therefore, bearing in mind the impunity prevailing to date regarding these incidents, the Commission
establishes that the failure of domestic courts to consider the above-mentioned elements constitutes a violation
of the state of Argentina’s international obligation to punish all forced disappearance of persons in accordance
with the rights established in Articles 8.1 y 25, in connection with Article 1.1 of the Convention, and with the
obligation established in Article I b) of the IACFDP. In any case, the Commission observes that what happened
to Mario Julien continues to go unpunished.
169.
Regarding the search for the remains of Victoria Grisonas and Mario Julien, the Commission observes
that, on the basis of available information, it does not emerge that all the necessary means have been used to
promptly undertake the necessary actions and verifications to clarify the fate of the victims, in accordance with
the above-mentioned inter-American case law. In the case of Mario Julien, according to what was investigated
in the framework of Case No. 2637/04, there are clues indicating that his remains were transferred in 1986 to
the General Ossuary of the General San Martín Municipal Cemetery. Nevertheless, despite the request filed by
Anatole Larrabeiti Yáñez as the complainant in said case, on the basis of available information, it cannot be
concluded that additional steps have been taken in order to locate the remains of Mario Julien and to proceed
with his identification and delivery to his son and daughter.
170.
The Commission stresses the importance for the Larrabeiti Yáñez siblings of receiving the bodies of
their biological mother and father, an aspect deemed to be of the utmost importance for the inter-American
system because it enables the next of kin to reach a closure in the process of bereavement, which in the instant
case has extended for various decades. Likewise, the Commission highlights the importance, for the next of kin
and society as a whole, to know the truth about what happened. As established by inter-American case law, in
cases of forced disappearances, the right of next of kin to know the fate of their loved ones and, when
appropriate, where their remains are located, is a constitutive part of the right to truth and is also included in
the right to access to justice and the obligation to investigate as a way of providing reparations to know the
truth in the concrete case.
171.
In connection with the investigation of the crimes perpetrated against the Larrabeiti Yáñez siblings, in
the framework of the judgment issued on May 31, 2011 in the case of “Orletti I,” the court requested that the
first instance judge in charge of Case No. 2637/04 be provided with the relevant procedural elements needed
to investigate the possible criminal participation of Rolando Nerone and other agents of the Federal Police of
Argentina in the abduction of the Julien-Grisonas family. When said judgment was issued, Rolando Nerone and
Oscar Gutiérrez had just been prosecuted. The Commission notes that, although in this order for prosecution,
the judge precisely detailed the actions perpetrated against the Larrabeiti Yáñez siblings, those being
prosecuted for these crimes were not indicted, and they were therefore excluded from the judgment of
September 11, 2017. As for the state itself, it indicated to the IACHR that the facts regarding the siblings are
still being processed.