Nicolás Cruz Sánchez, alias ‘Tito’, was found dead on a concrete slab at the back of the
outside hallway of the residence.395
310.
The Commission concluded, regarding Eduardo Nicolás Cruz Sánchez:
Witness statements by Hidetaka Ogura and National Police Sergeants Raul Robles
Reynoso and Marcial Teodorico Torres Arteaga about how the subversive Eduardo Nicolás
Cruz Sánchez, alias ‘Tito’, was captured and overpowered, as well as the findings from
the autopsies, lead to the assumption that he was arbitrarily executed under
circumstances unrelated to the armed clash while he was in the custody of military
personnel and had surrendered his arms.396
D) Examination of the facts by the Peruvian courts
311. The ruling by the Third Special Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Lima on
October 15, 2012 (supra para. 219), delivered following the submission of extensive
testimonial, documentary and expert evidence, concluded:
[…] Nicolás Cruz Sánchez was outside the residence when he was detained; this panel
finds it self-evident[, in this regard,] that given their police training, Sergeants [Robles
Reynoso and Torres Arteaga], who had also been working with the National Intelligence
Service under the orders of Jesús Zamudio Aliaga and recognized him as their immediate
commanding officer and therefore, they would naturally apprise him of any contingency,
as in this case a detention, and thus there is every reason to believe that this also
occurred, even though we do not have a courtroom statement by the accused, who is in
contempt. […] All this raises questions as to whether the MRTA member known as ‘Tito’
had a grenade on his person, considering that he had been detained and his hands were
bound behind his back; moreover, the unfolding of the event […] would suggest that in
view of the impact force of the bullet, if he had been holding a grenade, it would not have
remained in his hand.
[…]
The criminal proceedings have proven the death of Eduardo Nicolás Cruz Sánchez, who
was detained or apprehended by two police officers from the National Intelligence Service
[...] he was then found prone in an area located between House No. 1 and the residence
itself, with a single bullet wound that entered from the left side of the neck and was
necessarily lethal, and he was seen in this area under the guard of personnel from the
National Intelligence Service. Also relevant are the opinions concerning the distance at
which the shot was fired, the position of Cruz Sánchez’ body at the time of impact, and
the caliber of the projectile able to cause a wound of this kind. However, it has not been
possible to determine whether this happened by order or command from any the
defendants present in what has been called the “parallel chain of command”, that is, the
commission of the crime as the direct consequence of a policy of State.
[…]
This leads the majority to believe, […] in principle, that the subversive [Cruz Sánchez]
was killed after being detained, and the final proven fact is that he was in the power of
the police from the national intelligence service under the command of Zamudio Aliaga.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Informe Final, 2003, volume VII, chapter 2.66, Extrajudicial
executions at the residence of the Japanese ambassador (1997), pp. 731 and 732 (evidence file, volume I, annex 1
to the case submission brief, folios 17 to 18).
395
Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Informe Final, 2003, volume VII, chapter 2.66, Extrajudicial
executions at the residence of the Japanese ambassador (1997), p. 734 (evidence file, volume I, annex 1 to the case
submission brief, folio 20).
396