of “conveying an impression of humanitarian aid that, in fact, contaminated the crime
scene, by removing the body from the scene of the crime, knowing full well that it was a
corpse, and not an injured person.” 288 In this regard, the Court finds that the action
taken did not meet the basic requirements and was incomplete.
234. Furthermore, regarding the appraisals made of who fired the shots and of the
ballistics comparison, the Court notes that, although an appraisal was made of the
gunpowder residue and forensic and ballistic tests had been performed (supra paras. 80
and 81) on the weapon seized by police authorities and presumably used by Igmar
Landaeta, no fingerprints were taken, 289 which could have corroborated the hypothesis
of its use during the presumed confrontation with the police agents. Similarly, the Court
has corroborated that the forensic tests and ballistic comparison appraisal were not
performed on the weapons used by the police agents. These weapons were not
confiscated from the police agents involved and there is no record in the case file of a
ballistics comparison between the bullets that caused the death of Igmar Landaeta and
those used by the authorities, and no fingerprints were taken from the weapons of the
police agents. The Court considers that this is very significant, because ballistics
evidence must be obtained every time a weapon has been used, 290 especially if an
investigation involving State agents is being conducted in which the number of shots
fired by the said agents must be established so as to help clarify whether the use of
force by the police was necessary 291 and proportionate, and to exhaust all the lines of
investigation in order to discover the truth. In this regard, the domestic laws in force at
the time of the events established the need to identify the weapons used, their type and
caliber. 292
235. In addition, with regard to the establishment of criminal responsibility, the Court
notes that no appraisal was made to determine which shots were fired by each agent
and no procedure was conducted to allow the eyewitnesses to identify the police agents.
This would have been necessary so that these witnesses could identify, if possible, which
of the agents fired the shots. 293 In addition, there is no record that the authorities
performed other tests that could have provided further technical evidence to clarify the
discrepancies between the different versions of what happened, such as an analysis of
the vehicles, both the one that transported Igmar Landaeta to the medical center, as the
supposed white vehicle behind which he allegedly hid during the presumed
confrontation, according to the statements of some witnesses (supra paras. 63 and 65).
Furthermore, no measure was taken to disprove the dispute regarding the way in which
the second shot that caused the death of Igmar Landaeta was fired.
236. Based on the above, the Court considers that the lack of thoroughness in the
investigation of the crime scene and in the autopsy, the shortcomings in the preservation
288
Testimony of expert witness José Pablo Baraybar of January 29, 2014 (merits file, folio 835).
289
Cf. Case of Garibaldi v. Brazil. Merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of September 23, 2009. Series C
No. 203, para. 124 and Case of Veliz Franco et al., supra, para. 196 c).
290
Cf. ICRC, Guidelines for Investigating Deaths in Custody, supra, p. 13.
291
Cf. Case of Juan Humberto Sánchez, supra, paras. 111 and 112 and Case of J. v. Peru. Preliminary
objection, merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of November 27, 2013. Series C No. 275, para. 330.
292
In this regard, article 126 of the Code of Criminal Procedure established that: “If the weapons or
instruments used to commit the offense can be obtained, a drawing and a description shall be made which
shall be added to the file of the proceedings and, in the case of firearms, their type and caliber shall be noted.
When necessary to clarify the incident, the circumstances and the guilt of the perpetrators, a description of the
topography of the site where the offense was perpetrated shall be added to the file.”
293
Article 181 of the Code of Criminal Procedure indicated specifically that: “[…] If the witnesses or victims
do not know the name and other circumstances that would identify the suspect, an identification parade can be
organized, so that they may identify the individual who they believe to be the offender […].” And, article 262 of
the Code established the possibility of confronting witnesses if their statements were contradictory, as in this
case, stipulating that: “The witnesses whose statements are contradictory shall be confronted with each other
when one of the parties shall request this, or when the court orders this […].”
63