imprisonment. 249 Both the defense and the Pubic Prosecution Service appealed the first instance decision. 250 188. On October 24, 2014, the Superior Court of Bogota confirmed the 35-year prison sentence owing to the forced disappearance of five of the presumed victims (Carlos Augusto Rodríguez Vera, Bernardo Beltrán Hernández, Luz Mary Portela León, David Suspes Celis and Irma Franco Pineda), considering that “there is no doubt” that these persons “left the Palace alive in the custody of the Army, and were forcibly disappeared.” However, the respective Chamber of the Superior Court annulled the conviction in relation to the forced disappearance of the other presumed victims, considering that “doubts subsist as to the way in which they lost their life or disappeared.” 251 Nevertheless, it considered that: The fact that [the said] judgment did not declare forcibly disappeared all the victims categorized as such by the prosecution does not signify that it definitively rejects that they have been disappeared; it only means that, in some cases, there is insufficient evidence, legally provided to the proceedings, that they left the Palace alive in the custody of the Army. There are numerous indications, but none of them are conclusive, that there could have been eight or nine individuals who left the Palace alive and were forcibly disappeared, but only five of them have been reliably identified as indicated in this assessment of the evidence.252 F.2.d) Proceedings against the members of the B-2 of the 13th Brigade 189. The 51st Criminal Circuit Court assumed the hearing of the case on October 16, 2008 253 (supra para. 174). On December 9 and 10, 2008, the preparatory hearing was held, and in March 2009 the public hearing commenced. 254 190. Between March 2009 and September 2012, various probative elements were gathered, including reports and the results of tests on the remains exhumed from the mass grave in the South Cemetery (infra para. 195), requests for information relating to the autopsies, and records of the removal of the corpses and human remains from the Palace of Justice, testimony for the defense, and requests to the Ministry of Defense for information 249 Cf. Judgment of the 51st Criminal Court of the Bogota Circuit of April 28, 2011 (evidence file, folios 24654 and 24571). 250 Cf. Judgment of the Superior Court of Bogota of October 24, 2014 (evidence file, folios 38243 and 38259). 251 The Superior Court of Bogota emphasized that it would “declare forcibly disappeared only those persons where the evidence [was] so completely clear that they left the building alive in the custody of the Army that it would overcome any reasonable doubt”; and therefore established as a criterion that “[i]f there was no credible identification of a person leaving the building alive, that c[ould] also be corroborated by the available evidence, it [would] not be possible affirm – beyond any reasonable doubt – that the person had not died during the events and that he or she was not among the remains that had not been properly identified.” Cf. Judgment of the Superior Court of Bogota of October 24, 2014 (evidence file, folios 38272, 38278 and 38291). 252 Judgment of the Superior Court of Bogota of October 24, 2014 (evidence file, folio 38378). 253 Cf. Note of the Criminal Cassation Chamber to the 51st Criminal Court of the Bogota Circuit of October 9, 2008 (evidence file, folio 25035), and decision of the 51st Criminal Court of the Bogota Circuit of October 16, 2008 (evidence file, folio 25037). The accused were released in November 2008 owing to the time that passed without the public hearing being initiated. They were under pre-trial detention as of 2006 and 2007, respectively, and their release was granted in keeping with the applicable rules of criminal procedure. Cf. Decision of the 51st Criminal Court of the Bogota Circuit of October 28, 2008 (evidence file, folios 21568 to 21609). 254 In July 2008, the defense of the accused filed several applications for declarations of nullity, and also requested some evidence. On December 9, 2008, the court decided not to admit the applications for declarations of nullity. The parties filed appeals for reconsideration of judgment and, second, an appeal against some of the decisions on the alleged nullities, as well as on the evidence admitted. On February 20, 2009, the court decided not to reconsider its decisions and to grant the appeals that had been filed. Cf. Decisions of the 51st Criminal Court of the Bogota Circuit of December 9 and 10, 2008 (evidence file, folios 21328 to 21337, 21434 to 21354 and 21360); decision of the 51st Criminal Court of the Bogota Circuit of February 20, 2009 (evidence file, folios 21256 and 21315 to 21319); and hearing of March 25, 2009 (evidence file, folio 15001). 63