257. During operations to rescue victims and removal of debris, the authorities found the lifeless body of a
person who could not be identified249. The UFI AMIA reported in its December 2016 management report that
it found that, at the time of the autopsy, 3 phalanges were sectioned from the body, with no record of the
destination of this sample. Years later, the UFI AMIA added, the body was placed in the common ossuary of the
Chacarita Cemetery250.
258. In August 2016 and thanks to the genetic comparison expertise of the organic samples of the victims’
bodies in the possession of the UFI AMIA, it was established that “there was a probability equivalent to
99.9999% that the genetic profiles extracted of the samples corresponding to the person who, until then, had
not been identified belonged to a biological child of the person whose sample corresponds to Maria Lourdes
Jesús”. Based on this information, it was established that the body belonged to 20-year-old Augusto Daniel
Jesús. Augusto had gone on the morning of the attack to the job bank that operated at the AMIA in the company
of his mother, Maria Lourdes, who is also among the fatal victims of the attack251.
- Commission’s Considerations
259. The Commission values the efforts made by the Argentine State since 2015 aimed at clarifying the fate
of Augusto Daniel Jesús, establishing his identity and recognizing his status as a victim of the attack.
Nevertheless, the Commission regrets that a measure as elementary as the genetic comparison of the organic
samples from the body of Augusto Daniel Jesús with those belonging to the rest of the victims was only carried
out a few months after the 20th anniversary of the attack.
260. The Commission notes that the lack of diligence with which the State conducted the investigation in
relation to the organic samples belonging to the people who lost their lives in the attack not only hampered the
possibility of verifying the identity of the alleged suicide bomber, but also meant that for years the fate or
identity of the so-called "victim 85" remained unknown.
v)
Conclusion
261. The Commission finds that, in recent years, the State has adopted some relevant measures to further the
investigation and rectify the numerous shortcomings that occurred during the time the investigation was
headed by Federal Criminal Court No. 9. In this sense, the UFI AMIA since 2015 has carried out an evidentiary
activity that made it possible to reveal even greater shortcomings that occurred during the collection and
identification of essential evidentiary material in the initial proceedings.
262. The Commission observes, however, that such proceedings were preceded by long periods of delay,
without any justification being offered in this regard. Furthermore, the State has not demonstrated that, in
accordance with the principle of due diligence, all the required procedures had been thoroughly investigated
and carried out, and to date the main investigative hypothesis regarding the person who had participated as an
alleged suicide bomber, continues without being sufficiently clarified. Likewise, the investigation has not been
effective either to determine the responsibility in the attack of actors of international origin and, in general, of
all those responsible involved in the attack, with the facts still remaining in impunity.
263. In the same vein, both the IACHR and the Inter-American Court have repeatedly stated that the right to
the truth derived from Articles 8 and 25 of the Convention comprises a double dimension. From the individual
point of view, it includes the right of the victims and their next of kin to know both the truth of the events that
gave rise to the violations of their human rights and the identity of the perpetrators. Likewise, and from a
collective point of view, society as a whole also holds the right to know the truth of what happened, as well as
Annex 2. Judgment of the TOF 3. Chapter V.A, pages 2371 and 2372. Annex 1 to the petitioner’s communication dated November 11,
2019.
250 Annex 8. UFI AMIA Management Report December 2016. Page 9. Annex 12 to the petitioner's communication dated November 11, 2019.
251 Annex 8. UFI AMIA Management Report December 2016. Pages 9 and 10. Annex 12 to the petitioner's communication dated November
11, 2019.
249
51