on the rules applicable, the orders given, and the officers on active duty at the time of the events. 255 191. On July 12, 2011, the proceedings were forwarded to the 55th Criminal Circuit Court. 256 According to information provided by the parties, the evidence and arguments stage concluded in February 2013, and the proceedings are awaiting the first instance decision. 257 F.3 Exhumations 192. On August 20, 1996, the Second Criminal Court of the Bogota Special Circuit, in the context of the criminal proceedings instituted against the members of the M-19 (infra paras. 205 to 207), ordered the exhumation of the victims of the Palace of Justice buried in the mass grave in the South Cemetery, “in order to determine whether they included the bodies of the disappeared.” The Technical Investigations Unit (CTI) of the Prosecutor General’s Office was entrusted with the procedure and it was performed with the advisory assistance of the “Physical Anthropology Department of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, under the international oversight of the United Nations High Commissioner for Colombia” and the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF). The preliminary investigation was conducted between August 1996 and January 1997, the exhumations between February and August 1998, and the laboratory phase in 1998 and 1999. However, according to a report of the Physical Anthropology Laboratory of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (infra para. 194), the phase of “comparison was perhaps the most incomplete phase, because the coordinators of the preliminary stage of field and laboratory work were removed from the institution, and also the head of the Criminalistics Division, losing the memory of, and the interest in, this case.” 258 193. Five levels of the mass grave were excavated, 259 exhuming the remains of 90 adults on which different DNA tests were carried out in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2010 and 2012. 260 For 255 Cf. Notes of the 51st Criminal Court of the Bogota Circuit of March 26, 2009 (evidence file, folios 21321, 21323, 21326, 21611 and 21612); decision of the Superior Court of Bogota of August 11, 2009 (evidence file, folios 25095 and 25096), and Testimony of Mario Quintero Pastrana before the Second Criminal Judge of the Neiva Circuit on April 6, 2010 (evidence file, folios 21441 to 21522). 256 The proceedings were transferred to the 55th Criminal Court after a declaration of impediment, following the decision against the Commander of the 13th Brigade, by the judge in charge of the proceedings before the 51st Criminal Court of the Bogota Circuit. Cf. Declaration of impediment of the 51st Criminal Court of the Bogota Circuit of May 27, 2011 (evidence file, folio 21524); Note of the 51st Criminal Court of the Bogota Circuit of May 27, 2011 (evidence file, folios 21246 to 21248); decision of the 55th Criminal Circuit Court of Bogota of June 7, 2011 (evidence file, folios 25105, 21506 and 25108), and Note of the Superior Court of Bogota of July 12, 2011 (evidence file, folio 21250). 257 Cf. Brief of the representatives of March 17, 2013 (merits file, folio 2811), and table summarizing the current status of the criminal proceedings against members of the Military Forces for the events of November 6 and 7, 1985 (evidence file, folio 37325). 258 Cf. Partial report of exhumation in order to identify the victims of the holocaust of the Palace of Justice, prepared by the National Directorate, Technical Investigation Unit, Criminalistics Division of May 5, 1997 (evidence file, folios 37878 to 37901); Report of the Truth Commission (evidence file, folio 246); Judgment of the Superior Court of Bogota of January 30, 2012 (evidence file, folio 23032); report on the results of the bio-anthropological analysis of the osseous remains of the holocaust of the Palace of Justice deposited in the Physical Anthropology Laboratory of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (evidence file folio 37903); report on the forensic anthropology investigation of the case of the Palace of Justice, Physical Anthropology Laboratory of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (evidence file, folio 21684); Testimony of Yolanda González, expert witness of the Genetics Laboratory of the Attorney General’s office of March 15, 2012, before the 55th Criminal Circuit Court of Bogota (evidence file, folio 14822), and Testimony of Carlos Valdés Moreno, Director General of the National Institute of Forensic Medicine and Science, of March 15, 2012, before the 55th Criminal Circuit Court of Bogota (evidence file, folios 14844 to 14851). 259 According to the information on file, these five levels corresponded to five different burial procedures delimited by the filling material usually placed on top of the corpses that were deposited and covered with sand and lime to avoid unpleasant odors. Cf. Testimony of Carlos Valdés Moreno, Director General of the National Institute of Forensic Medicine and Science, of March 15, 2012, before the 55th Criminal Circuit Court of Bogota (evidence file, folio 14851). 64