15
3.
A copy of a statement made by Dr. Rolando Tábora, forensic specialist, as
part of the inquiry undertaken by the above Court into the deaths of Miguel Angel
Pavón and Moisés Landaverde Recarte, and certified by that Court on January 27,
1988.
...
4.
A copy of the inquiry into threats against the lives of Ramón Custodio and
Milton Jiménez, conducted by the First Criminal Court of Tegucigalpa, Central
District, and certified by that Court on February 2, 1988.
In the same submission, the Government stated that:
The content of the above documents shows that the Government of Honduras has
initiated a judicial inquiry into the assassinations of Miguel Angel Pavón Salazar
and Moisés Landaverde Recarte, under the procedures provided for by Honduran
law.
Those same documents show, moreover, that the projectiles were not removed
from the bodies for ballistic study because of the opposition of family members,
which is why no ballistic report was submitted as requested.
70.
The Government also requested an extension of the deadline ordered above "because, for
justifiable reasons, it has been impossible to obtain some of the information." Upon instructions
from the President, the Secretariat informed the Government on the following day that it was not
possible to extend the deadlines because it had been set by the full Court.
71.
By communication of March 10, 1988, the Inter-Institutional Commission of Human Rights
of Honduras, a governmental body, made several observations regarding the Court's decision of
January 15, 1988. "On the threats that have been made against some witnesses," it reported
that Ramón Custodio "refused to bring a complaint before the proper courts and that the First
Criminal Court of Tegucigalpa, Department of Morazán, had initiated an inquiry to determine
whether there were threats, intimidations, conspiracies, etc. against the lives of Dr. Custodio and
Milton Jiménez, and had duly summoned them to testify and to summit any evidence," but they
failed to appear. It added that no Honduran official "has attempted to intimidate, threaten or
restrict the liberty of any of the persons who testified before the Court. . . who enjoy the same
guarantees as other citizens."
72.
On March 23, 1988 the Government submitted the following documents:
1.
Copies of the autopsies performed on the bodies of Miguel Angel Pavón
and Moisés Landaverde, certified by the Secretary of the Third Criminal Court of
the Judicial District of San Pedro Sula.
2.
The ballistic report on the shrapnel removed from the bodies of those
persons, signed by the Director of the Medical-Legal Department of the Supreme
Court of Justice.
73.
On October 25, 1988, the Agent submitted newspaper articles published in Honduras on
October 20 containing statements of Héctor Orlando Vásquez, former President of the San Pedro
Sula branch of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CODEH), according
to which the Government had no responsibility in the deaths of Miguel Angel Pavón Salazar,
Moisés Landaverde Recarte and others. The Inter-Institutional Commission of Human Rights of