234. Nevertheless, the Court must not only focus on analyzing the evidence relating to
whether the ten presumed victims left the Palace of Justice alive in the custody of State
agents. A forced disappearance consists of numerous actions that, combined towards a
single objective, violate permanently, while they subsist, different rights protected by the
Convention. 336 Therefore, the examination of an enforced disappearance must be
consequent with the complex violation of human rights that it entails. 337 When examining a
presumed forced disappearance it is necessary to bear in mind that the deprivation of
liberty of the individual is only the start of the constitution of a complex violation that
extends over time until the fate and the whereabouts of the victim are known. The analysis
of a possible forced disappearance should not focus in an isolated, separate and fragmented
way only on the detention, the possible torture, or the risk of loss of life. 338
235. This Court also notes that the State’s discrepancy is based, to a great extent, on the
conclusions of the Superior Court of Bogota in criminal proceedings during which it
considered that the forced disappearance of Carlos Augusto Rodríguez Vera and Irma
Franco Pineda had been proved, but declared a partial nullity with regard to the forced
disappearance of the other presumed disappeared victims considering that, in these
proceedings, it had not received evidence that proved this beyond any reasonable doubt
(supra paras. 177 to 180). 339 In this regard, the Court reiterates that it is not a criminal
court, so that, in order to establish that a violation of the rights recognized in the
Convention has occurred, it is not necessary that the State’s responsibility has been proved
beyond any reasonable doubt (supra para. 81).
236. Therefore, owing to the complex nature of forced disappearance, a crime that violates
multiples norms, the Court will analyze the indicative elements that, when taken together,
contribute to determining whether the presumed victims left the Palace of Justice alive and
were subsequently forcibly disappeared, as follows: (a) the classification of the disappeared
as suspicious; (b) the failure to register and the separation of the persons considered
suspicious; (c) the transfer of the suspects to military facilities where the torture and
disappearances occurred; (d) the information received by the next of kin that the
disappeared had left the Palace alive; (e) The Armed Forces’ denial of the detention of
individuals from the Palace of Justice; (f) the alteration of the crime scene and the
irregularities in the removal of corpses; (g) the threats to the family members and
acquaintances; (h) the identification in videos by family members and acquaintances. The
Court will also examine the State’s hypothesis according to which: (i) the disappeared
persons may have died inside the Palace of Justice, and will also take into account (j) the
failure to elucidate the events, in order to determine what happened to the abovementioned presumed victims.
A.2.a) The classification of the disappeared as suspicious
and Others v. Russia, No. 3013/04, Judgment of November 6, 2008, paras. 79 and 80.
336
Cf. Case of Radilla Pacheco v. Mexico. Preliminary objections, merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of
November 23, 2009. Series C No. 209, para. 138, and Case of García and family members v. Guatemala. Merits,
reparations and costs. Judgment of November 29, 2012. Series C No. 209, para. 99.
337
Cf. Case of Heliodoro Portugal v. Panama. Preliminary objections, merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of
August 12, 2008. Series C No. 186, para. 112, and Case of García and family members v. Guatemala. Merits,
reparations and costs. Judgment of November 29, 2012. Series C No. 209, para. 99.
338
Cf. Case of Heliodoro Portugal v. Panama. Preliminary objections, merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of
August 12, 2008. Series C No. 186, para. 112, and Case of González Medina and family members v. Dominican
Republic. Preliminary objections, merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of February 27, 2012. Series C No. 240,
para. 175.
339
Those proceedings did not examine the presumed forced disappearance of Ana Rosa Castiblanco Torres.
79
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