37 n. Report of Olga Molina-Obregón, former Judge The witness declared that judges received no kind of state protection for processing writs of habeas corpus; they were usually afraid when they processed cases involving the State’s security forces. In cases involving members of the security forces, witnesses were afraid and refused to testify. In 20 years of professional experience she had not received any direct information about persons kidnapped by State security agents. From her 15 years of experience in the courts, she knew that very few remedies were admitted. Under the former Code, final dismissal was a form of termination of the process that produced res judicata. Simple release, under the previous Code of Procedure, was what was granted when procedural evidence showed it to be impossible that the accused committed the crime or when there was no evidence against that person. She had the opportunity to read the file on the "white van case," thought that the investigation was very extensive and that the data could provide the judge with a wide margin for developing an investigation. Under the Code of Procedure in force in 1988, it was Judge Trejo, and not the private accusers, who had the obligation to investigate the facts. The appropriate remedy against a final dismissal issued by the justice tribunals in Guatemala, under the previous Code, would have been that of appeal; the private accusers could file it if they had the status of parties within the process; it could also be filed by the Department of the District Attorney ("Ministerio Público"). Extrajudicial statements had no judicial value; in taking decisions, judges could not take into account probative elements not in the record. o. Testimony of Carlos Odilio Estrada-Gil, former Seventh Judge of Criminal First Instance of Guatemala City, Guatemala The witness declared that he had been in charge of the "white van case" for the summary phase; he recalled that some of the persons accused had been freed; the case was still at the investigation stage when he left the Bench. During the years in which he was in charge of the court he had not ordered the detention of any Treasury Police agent. On one occasion he had been asked for a dismissal; the request was made by one of the accused in the case, Mr. [Díaz] Urquizú, former Director-General of the Treasury Police; after studying the proceedings, he decided that the dismissal requested was out of order and rejected it. p. Testimony of Felicito Olíva-Arias, Commissioner-General of the National Police of Guatemala The witness testified that in 1987 he was Chief of the National Police Investigations Department and investigated the "white van case." A white "van" with tinted windows was detained on March 10, 1988, at kilometer 12 (sic) on the highway leading to El Salvador. Six agents were also detained. He recalled that the Treasury Police said that the vehicle had no rear license plate. The Treasury Police claimed that the "beige" Chevrolet Chevy "Van" 20 was not used in ist operation; this was false, inasmuch as that institution’s operations log contained an entry stating that the vehicle went out on an operation after it was painted brown to conceal its original color. It was