21. The petitioners reported that, following the judgment of the Constitutional Court, there ensued an interminable series of recusals by judges, many of which were declared illegitimate.4 22. On July 4, 2002, the Attorney General's office requested the eighth criminal judge to stay provisionally the charges against Ernesto Morant Lijeron, Pedro Perey González Monasterio, Elías Moreno Caballero, Juan Antonio Elio Rivero and Justo Sarmiento Alanes. On August 13, 2002 the Eighth Judge opened proceedings against the defendants Justo Sarmiento Alanes, Pedro Perci Gonzáles Monasterio, Elías Moreno Caballero, Juan Antonio Elio Rivero, Ernesto Morant Lijeron and Oscar Manacho Vaca for deprivation of liberty, abuse and torture, and ordered that the case be returned to the Criminal Court for continuation of oral testimony and cross examination. On November 9, 2002, the evidentiary hearings were suspended because none of the defendants were present or represented in the courtroom. 23. On March 2, 2005, the petitioners informed the IACHR that on January 19, 2005, Judge Saul Saldaña Secos of the Superior Court of Santa Cruz declared the proceedings against all the defendants closed, and quashed all jurisdictional measures against them (ruling 04/2005).5 On April 18, 2005, the First Civil Court of the Superior District Court of Santa Cruz, in light of the illegal recusals of the two criminal chambers, revoked the decision of Judge Saul Saldaña Secos, and ordered proceedings to continue without cost. 24. The petitioners also complained of violation of Article 5 of the American Convention in relation to the relatives of the victims. They explained that in pursuing the investigations demanded by the victims' relatives, the petitioner Tito Ibsen and especially Dr. Rebeca Ibsen Castro,6 acting as civil attorney, had to appeal to the courts for constitutional guarantees after they had been subjected to a series of threats and acts of intimidation by the defendants. 25. The petitioners questioned the State's assertion that the remains of Rainer Ibsen Cárdenas were to be found in the mausoleum of ASOFAMD. They maintained that the victim's relatives were never officially informed of his whereabouts, and that the State failed to conduct a forensic investigation to determine the identity of the remains that the State alleges to be those of Rainer Ibsen Cárdenas. To date, the victim's family has seen no evidence to verify the assertion, because the remains have never been scientifically identified.7 On this point, the petitioners claimed that the State has violated the right of the family to know the truth about the fate of Rainer Ibsen Cárdenas. 26. Finally, in response to the State's arguments about activating the Interagency Council on Forced Disappearances,8 the petitioners report that the victims' relatives were visited by an official of the President's office responsible for that Council who asked them for documentation on the disappearance of the two Ibsen men but then returned the documents, saying that there was no budget for the Council's operations. 4 See also the article in the on-line journal of El Deber: Caso Trujillo: uno de los acusados pidió la libertad, atwww.eldeber.com.bo/20050424/santacruz_18.html, according to which “one after another, 23 judges and 9 court members excused themselves from participating in the trial, citing friendship or hostlity towards one party or the other, or saying they had issued some public opinion. Some of them were fined Bs 100, when it was demonstrated that their excuses were illegitimate”. The petitioners submitted detail information on the excuses offered by justice officials since 2001. By way of example, they submitted some of the recusals for 2003: on April 9, 2003, the judge of the Eighth Criminal Court of Santa Cruz recused himself from further involvement in the case. Similar moves were made by the ninth criminal judge of Santa Cruz on April 26, 2003; by the 10th criminal judge on May 9, 2003; the first criminal judge on May 22, 2003; the second criminal judge on May 28, 2003; the third criminal judge on May 31, 2003; and the fourth criminal judge on June 11, 2003. 5 Juzgado 5to. De Partido en los Penal Liquidador de la Capital Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Auto No. 04/2005 (extinction of criminal action) Plaintiffs: Ministerio Publico, Antonia Gladys Oroza Vda de Solon Romero, Rebeca Ibsen Castro. Defendants: 1) Oscar Menacho Vaca, 2) Pedro Percy González Monasterio, 3) Juan Antonio Elio Rivero, 4) Elías Moreno Caballero, 5) Ernesto Morant Ljjeron, 6) Justo Sarmiento Alanes. Decision of January 19, 2005. 6 Rebeca Ibsen Castro is the daughter of José Luis Ibsen Peña and the sister of Rainer Ibsen Castro. 7 In October 2003, Rebeca Ibsen Castro asked the local court of Warnes to order a full autopsy (involving paleontological, forensic and genetic examinations) of the remains of Rainer Ibsen Cardenas found in the public cemetery of La Paz in the ASOFAMD mausoleum. That examination has not yet been conducted. 8 The Council was established in 2003 to pursue decisions of the Inter-American Court on Human Rights relating to the search for information for discovering the remains of victims of forced disappearance. 4