July 8, 2009, Lima, Peru: The Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF) welcomes the Peruvian Supreme Court’s ratification of the verdict in the La Cantuta case, which affirms the responsibility and sanction of Julio Salazar Monroe, as well as the other accused, in the murders of a professor and nine students from La Cantuta University in 1992.
 
“Today’s decision represents a significant advancement towards justice in cases involving grave violations of human rights,” the group said in a statement. “It also signifies an important step forward in the use of forensic analysis as scientific evidence in judicial prosecutions, and it has been EPAF’s privilege to contribute substantially to this process as official forensic experts in the case.”

The 10 victims were abducted by a government death squad, known as Grupo Colina, in a pre-dawn raid July 18, 1992, and shot in the head. Their remains were later found in an unmarked grave.

EPAF, a partner of The Advocacy Project (AP), conducted forensic tests and DNA analysis on the remains in 2007 and gave testimony to the First Anticorruption Criminal Court in Peru.

Only four of the ten victims could be positively identified, but the evidence was sufficient for the court to sentence four members of the Colina death squad to jail terms of up to 35 years. The case, which concluded in April 2008, was the first time forensic evidence had been used successfully in a trial before a Peruvian court.

The Cantuta massacre has also played a key role in the prosecution of Mr. Fujimori, his advisor Vladimiro Montesinos, and two other members of the Colina squad, who are being tried in separate legal proceedings.

In its statement, EPAF said it hopes the success of the La Cantuta case can be replicated in other cases of forced disappearances in Peru:

“The ratification of this historic verdict fills us with optimism and hope for achieving justice in the innumerable other cases of forced disappearance and extrajudicial killings that continue to challenge us as a society recovering from a prolonged and brutal internal armed conflict.”