-68Bello “to coordinate the procedure for the exhumation of the corpses and their
technical identification, guaranteeing the necessary custody of the evidence.”135
95(109) In January 2003, José Daniel Álvarez, a relative of one of the alleged
victims, reiterated the request he had made in August 2002 to the First Criminal
Court of the Medellín Specialized Circuit. He also stated that “the delay in response
was causing a delay in the procedure of identifying the corpses that was being
carried out by the Technical Investigation Corps of the Prosecutor General’s Office.”
In this note, he requested this court to order:
[…] The Forensic Division of the TIC in Bogotá to carry out the procedure to exhume the
corpses from the common grave in the San Antonio de Montería cemetery in order to try
to identify them fully and, in particular, to determine which of them correspond to the
victims of the collective disappearance from Pueblo Bello. This order is necessary
because, according to recent declarations by the TIC, legal authorization is required to
be able to proceed with this new measure, duly respecting the established procedures
and, in particular, the chain of custody of the evidence. […] I must emphasize the
urgency of collecting this evidence as soon as possible because we have been informed
that, in the San Antonio cemetery and, in particular, in the area where the common
grave containing the remains of our unidentified loved ones are buried, there are plans
to carry out a paving project, which, if it is implemented, would eliminate the possibility
of identifying the victims of the forced disappearance.
[…] To suspend the planned paving project in the area used as a common grave in the
cemetery […] 136
95(110) On February 21, 2003, the Office of the First Prosecutor of the National
Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Unit requested ASFADDES to
provide information on the location of the common grave in the San Antonio
cemetery, Montería, where there were unidentified corpses that might be related to
the events of Pueblo Bello.137
95(111) On February 21, 2003, the National Human Rights and International
Humanitarian Law Unit of the Prosecutor General’s Office, considered that:
[…] There is a juridical-philosophical principle that exists not only in our domestic laws,
but in different types of international law, whose purpose is to provide real protection
and promotion for the respect of human rights and international humanitarian law. We
refer to the principle of the “Right to know the truth” […]
[…] We have only gone halfway towards clarifying the [facts]; however, this office
envisages the possibility of augmenting the body of evidence by ordering certain judicial
measures to be taken that are warranted and may allow us to understand what really
happened […]
and, consequently, decided to order the partial annulment of previous actions,
including the measures that ordered the closure of the investigation and, therefore,
to continue with the pre-trial investigation. Thus, to advance the investigation, it
ordered the following measures to collect evidence:
135
Cf. note of September 17, 2002, from ASFADDES to the National Human Rights and International
Humanitarian Law Unit (file of documents received during the public hearing, folios 2752 to 2755).
136
Cf. note of January 2003 from José Daniel Álvarez to the First Criminal Court of the Medellín
Specialized Circuit (file of documents received during the public hearing, folios 2756 to 2757).
137
Cf. decision of February 21, 2003, issued by the Office of the First Prosecutor of the National
Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Unit (file of attachments to the requests and
arguments brief, tome V, attachment 7(5), folios 1653 and 1654).
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