A sentence for aggravated forced disappearance in the context of the investigation that is being conducted by the facts of the taking of the Law Courts, November 5-6 1985, against a Colonel, a Captain and two Sergeants from the army was requested by a Prosecutor’s Office.
The retired B-2 Commander of the army, Colonel Edilberto Sánchez Rubiano; retired captain Óscar William Vásquez and retired sergeants Luis Fernando Nieto Velandia and Ferney Martín Causallá Peña were included in the judicial decision as co-conspirators.
According to the accusing delegate, a military witness, on a sworn declaration dated on August 2007, he/she related how the employees of the cafeteria and some officials were tortured and interrogated for the facts happened in the taking of the Law Courts carried out by M-19 guerrilla group.
Charges against retired Captain Vasquez and retired Sergeants Nieto Velandia and Causallá Peña arose from the forced disappearance of 11 people identified as Ana Rosa Castiblanco, Gloria Stella Lizarazo, Gloria Anzola, Norma Constanza Esguerra, Irma Franco Pineda, Carlos Augusto Rodríguez Vera, David Suspes Celis, Héctor Jaime Beltrán, Bernardo Beltrán, Cristina Guarin Cortes, Luz Mary Portela.
However, the Prosecutor in charge, in that sense, did not submit any request against Sanchez for the M-19 guerrilla Irma Franco Pineda’s disappearance, because he was already sentenced for this case in the military justice.
“These people were in the Law Courts the day of the incident, they left alive and were identified by judges, officials, relatives and friends through videos given by mass media. Then, they were taken to the ‘House of the Vase’ museum and there, their track was lost”, assured the representative of the accusing entity during the public hearing of summation.
During the trial, the present general director of the National Institute of Legal Medicine, Carlos Eduardo Valdés Moreno, in his testimony, noticed that when comparing the DNA found on the alleged victims’ osseous remains of the Law Courts holocaust, it was establish that it is not similar to the relatives’ genetic markers of the missing persons, therefore he concluded that do not correspond to the missing persons.
A sentence as co-conspirators was requested by the accusing delegate based on the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of Justice, which maintains that it deals with an order of hierarchical superiors, a work by common consent, a plan with tasks division and the importance of the role of each one, it holds them responsible for the foisted crime.