“deprived the officials responsible for documenting the removal of the corpses of important details that, later, made it difficult to identify the corpses.” 176 146. The removal of the corpses was overseen by military criminal investigation judges. Officials of the Judicial Police, the Fire Department, the Red Cross, and Civil Defense worked under their orders. In this regard, the Truth Commission indicated that “[a]ccording to [one] testimony, the DIJIN experts […] were carrying out the legal procedures for the removal of the corpses from the fourth floor, preparing the respective records there, while the firefighters were collaborating collecting the mortal remains, covering them and then transferring them to the first floor or, in any case, to the vehicles that took them to the Institute of Forensic Medicine.” 177 In addition, some of “the corpses were removed with no mention of the specific place where they had been found.” 178 147. The Report of the Truth Commission indicated that: The main irregularities committed in the processing of the crime scene and the removal of the corpses are revealed by the formal and substantial incompetence of the officials who took part in the procedures, as well as by the contamination of the scene, as regards both the custody of the war materiel and the transfer of the bodies from the place where death occurred, the cleansing of some bodies, the inappropriateness of undressing them, and the improper handling and packaging of the clothing and objects associated with the bodies. 179 148. Similarly the Superior Court of the Judicial District of Bogota underlined that: The alteration of the scene of the events is a fact. In this regard, there is no clear explanation as to why, following the end of the combat, several corpses were moved from the site where they fell (in some records the position recorded is artificial and unnatural, without establishing the specific site of the record, because it only mentions that it was prepared in the Palace of Justice), and taken to the internal patio of the building. Furthermore, there is no explanation as to why some carbonized corpses were moved from where they were found to the internal patio of the Palace of Justice for inspection and removal. 180 149. In this regard, the Truth Commission indicated that, of the 94 records of the removal of a corpse analyzed, “it is only possible to establish the exact place where the person died in 22 of the records, while in the others, the position of the corpse is unnatural, because the record was prepared at a place other than where the person died, specifically in the first floor patio.” Also, although the bodies had been moved, “the official removal records provide a detailed description of both the position of the body and the clothes and other objects, explaining their situation in relation to the body.” The Truth Commission also indicated that, in some records, “special care can be observed in the description of the clothing associated with the body and, in some cases, the removal record may have been prepared at the place where the person died.” 181 175 Report of the Special Investigative Court (evidence file, folio 30531); Report of the Truth Commission (evidence file, folio 193), and Testimony of Enrique Parejo González of December 4, 2007 (evidence file, folios 14766 and 14767). 176 Report of the Special Investigative Court (evidence file, folio 30531); Report of the Truth Commission (evidence file, folio 193), and Testimony of Enrique Parejo González of December 4, 2007 (evidence file, folios 14763 and 14764). 177 Report of the Truth Commission (evidence file, folios 192, 208 and 209); Judgment of the Superior Court of Bogota of January 30, 2012 (evidence file, folios 22996, 22998 and 22999); Written notes by Carlos Bacigalupo (evidence file folios 36320 and 36321), and note SSF-542-2013 of the National Institute of Forensic Medicine and Science, Forensic Services Department, of October 25, 2013 (evidence file, folio 37971). 178 Report of the Special Investigative Court (evidence file, folio 30523). 179 Report of the Truth Commission (evidence file, folios 191 and 192). 180 Judgment of the Superior Court of Bogota of January 30, 2012 (evidence file, folio 23056). 181 Report of the Truth Commission (evidence file, folios 200, 201, 208 and 209). 51

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