26
a word for fear of getting killed, as he knows that whoever did this are from the same place
and they know each other, and they are very dangerous people.”98
85.
Also, as alleged by the Inter-American Commission and the representatives, the
evidence taken domestically and the reports issued by the investigation organs evidence the
involvement of a FUSEP official in this complex structure that was in charge of carrying out
and concealing the murder of Mrs. Kawas-Fernández. In this regard, in the proven facts
section of this Judgment (supra paras. 50 to 70) it was established that at least one police
officer took steps aimed at obstructing the administration of justice in this case by
threatening witnesses99 (supra paras. 59, 60 and 64), by acts of coercion intended to throw
the investigation off track100 (supra para. 57), and by negligence in the gathering of
evidence at the crime scene and in the performance of the steps customarily taken to arrest
the perpetrators of this crime101 (supra para. 54).
86.
In this regard, the Court notes that one year after the events, in their report of May
10, 1996, agents of the Tela Bureau of Criminal Investigations highlighted the involvement
of a FUSEP official in the facts of the instant case. Accordingly, they stated that
we then realized that a sergeant from the Public Security Force […] of this very same town coerced one
Juan Francisco López-Mejía, offering to pay him money to say he was the perpetrator. When conducting
our investigations we learned that Jorge Montoya owns a place nearby the city’s Public Force building,
about half a block away […] what we could verify was that Public Security Force sergeant Perdomo was
seen entering the house. We thus started finding links between these people and looking for sufficient
evidence to clarify this crime.102
87.
The involvement of said police officer in the cover-up of Mrs. Kawas-Fernández’s
murder is also evidenced by the witness statement of Mr. Dencen Andino-Alvarado, which
he rendered on October 30, 2003 before DGIC, stating that:
[…] we were brought to the Courthouse to give a statement on whether we knew the killers and, from
there, we were taken back to the police station, taken to San Pedro Sula around three in the
afternoon, because they claimed to have found a car [which] the killers had supposedly driven;
sergeant Perdomo got there when we were in the holding cells and said to us, What you have to say
is that you don’t know them, so it will be you left, that you do not know them […]
[…] I was home and received an anonymous message, the same one engineer Urraco got, saying we
had to stick to what we had said, that we hadn’t seen anything.
98
Cf. memorandum addressed to Bureau of Criminal Investigation Director Wilfredo Alvarado, supra note 44.
99
Cf. statement rendered by Dencen Alex Andino-Alvarado on August 9, 2003, supra note 51; Technical and
Legal Opinion No. DCAT-SATJ- AFS 022/2003, supra note 31; investigation report of the General Bureau of
Criminal Investigations of October 30, 2003, signed by Daniel Barahona, supra note 31, and brief of request for
issuance of an warrant of arrest filed by prosecutor Luis Javier Santos-Cruz to the Court of First Instance in and for
Tela, on March 2, 2004 (record of appendixes to the answer to the application, appendix 8, folios 1722-1725).
100
Cf. witness testimony of Saúl Benjamín Zapata-Mejía of January 20, 2004, supra note 31; memorandum
addressed to Bureau of Criminal Investigation Director Wilfredo Alvarado, supra note 44; Technical and Legal
Opinion No. DCAT-SATJ- AFS 022/2003, supra note 31; brief of request for issuance of an warrant of arrest filed by
prosecutor Luis Javier Santos-Cruz to the Court of First Instance in and for Tela, on March 2, 2004, supra note 99.
101
Cf. Technical and Legal Opinion No. DCAT-SATJ- AFS 022/2003, supra note 31.
102
Cf. memorandum addressed to Bureau of Criminal Investigation Director Wilfredo Alvarado, supra note 44.
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