4
coupon. Said act was performed in the presence of the Provincial Prosecutor, as
representative of the Special Prosecutor’s Office. Thereupon, the State asserted that it
located, identified and delivered the human remains of Víctor Raúl Neira-Alegría to his
next of kin. Later, on February 1, 2005, the State informed that William Jans ZentenoEscobar’s and Edgar Edison Zenteno-Escobar’s next of kin failed to collect their
remains and requested that an expert examination be conducted.
8.
That, considering the foregoing, the State informed that the Special
Prosecutor’s Office requested the Acting Supra-Provincial Criminal Court to conduct a
DNA test of the alleged remains. On January 19, 2005, the Supra-Provincial Criminal
Court ordered the commencement of an investigation and instructed that the Forensic
Clinical Studies Division [División de Exámenes Clínico Forenses] of the Forensic
Anthropology Laboratory [Laboratorio de Antropología Forense] at the Institute of
Forensic Medicine [Instituto de Medicina Legal] conduct a DNA test of the remains of
the victims of the events at the former Correctional Facility of San Juan Bautista (El
Frontón). The First Supra-Provincial Court had twice insisted on said request. On July
13, 2005, the Institute of Forensic Medicine [Instituto de Medicina Legal] notified the
Court that it lacked the necessary material technological and financial resources to
comply with the judicial order and requested the necessary equipment to carry out the
DNA test to the Attorney General. Concurrently, on July 20, 2005, it informed the
Attorney General that the institution lacked resources and, therefore, the Ministry of
Economy and Finance was notified thereof in order that a complementary loan be
granted to cover the test costs. The State highlighted that upon the failure to
apportion budgetary resources to the Institute of Forensic Medicine [Instituto de
Medicina Legal] the DNA test ordered by the Supra-Provincial Criminal Court had not
been carried out.
9.
That the State considered that, despite the financial restrictions, it had made
its best efforts to identify the human remains of William Jans Zenteno-Escobar and
Edgar Zenteno-Escobar and deliver them to their next of kin. Moreover, the State
highlighted that it was committed to the search of truth and justice, and pointed out
that it would continue identifying and delivering further human remains to the victim’s
next of kin.
10.
That the representatives, in the comments submitted on December 8, 2003,
referred, among other issues, to the actions taken by the State aiming at complying
with the order of the Court in relation to the location, identification and verification
measures conducted at the sites where the remains of the inmates killed at the former
Correctional Facility of “San Juan Bautista” were buried; to the exhumation actions at
the cemeteries Zapallal, Presbítero Maestro, San Bartolo and Pucasana; to the
anthropological, dental and stomatological, biological and forensic identification tests
of the exhumed human remains; and to the ongoing interviews of the experts of the
Institute of Forensic Medicine [Instituto de Medicina Forense] with the next of kin of
the deceased victims; in particular, to the interviews with the victims´ next of kin and
the blood sample collection for DNA testing in Víctor Raúl Neira-Alegría’s sister and
William Jans Zenteno-Escobar’s and Edgar Edison Zenteno-Escobar’s parents. At the
same time, the representatives asserted that, by that time, some exhumation
measures and results of remains tests and blood samples were still pending;
therefore, they concluded that the State had failed to comply with the obligation to
locate and identify the victims´ remains and to deliver them to their next of kin.
11.
That the representatives, in the comments submitted on March 28, 2005,
pointed out that even though the chronology of the actions aimed at locating the