A/HRC/28/83 in the coup. Even before he had overseen the exhumation of the bodies of victims in two cases of enforced disappearances, in December 2013 and April 2014 respectively, the investigating judge responsible for the cases had sufficient evidence to order the arrest of General Sanogo, four senior officials from the former military junta and their associates. The defendants remain under arrest, pending the commencement of their trials. The Independent Expert met with representatives of the association of parents and spouses of the “red beret” soldiers killed at the Kati military barracks, who said that they were distraught and sad because, since the exhumation of their relatives’ remains, the families were still waiting for the victims’ bodies to be returned to them, in order to make funeral arrangements. The families also complained that they had not received any assistance from the military authorities, contrary to the provisions of the Malian army regulations. 42. The Independent Expert emphasizes that the Malian Government and military authorities had, in each instance, brought before the civilian judicial authorities the military personnel against whom warrants to appear had been issued, regardless of their military rank. This attests to the efforts being made in Mali to assert the control of the civilian authorities over the army and other security bodies. 43. However, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed as part of the conflict in the north continue to go largely unpunished. The Government established a special commission of inquiry into the murder of Malian soldiers in Aguelhok in 2012, but the members of that commission could not reach Aguelhok for security reasons and had to stop at Gao, where they met with the families of the victims. The commission has drawn up a list of survivors, widows and orphans, and has met with them, but it has not been able to conduct thorough investigations. It has submitted a progress report to the authorities. 44. The Independent Expert would like to commend the Malian human rights organizations and their international partners who have continued to remind the Malian authorities at the highest level that it is their duty to respect the right to justice and the right to compensation for the victims of such crimes and not to make those rights a bargaining chip in the political talks with armed groups. The organizations have and deplored the fact that no distinction has been made between political prisoners, criminals under ordinary law and persons suspected of war crimes or crimes against humanity. 45. Despite these calls, the Government of Mali has, over the last year, begun to release political detainees belonging to the armed groups, as it did in October 2013, invoking the confidence-building measures provided for in article 18 of the Ouagadougou Preliminary Agreement. 46. On 15 July 2014, the Government released 42 members of MNLA, HCUA and MAA, in exchange for 45 soldiers captured during the events that occurred in Kidal in May. Some of the individuals released had been charged with, or were under investigation for, their alleged roles in committing international crimes during the conflict in the north of the country. 47. On 15 August 2014, the Malian Government released Houka Houka Ag Alfousseyni, who, as a sharia court judge in Timbuktu, had allegedly been ruthless with the local population during the occupation of the city by jihadi groups. The court had ordered amputations, floggings and arbitrary arrests. The judge investigating the case had filed charges against Mr. Alfousseyni for his alleged role in committing those crimes. 48. These politically-motivated releases occurred at the same time as the competent investigating judges were holding the first round of hearings for a group of victims of international crimes committed in the north of Mali. The releases pose a security risk for the victims who are losing all confidence in their country’s justice system. Victims’ associations have expressed great concern because of the sense of fear among victims, who realize that their torturers are at liberty, and because of the resurgence of armed groups GE.15-00252 9