Colombian rebels will hand over the corpses of 11 politicians killed in captivity last month, the Red Cross said last night.
The government accuses the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, of executing the provincial lawmakers, whose killings prompted hundreds of thousands of people to take to the streets last week protesting guerrilla kidnappings.
The Farc, which is also holding French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three US defence contractors, says the legislator were killed in crossfire when an unidentified military group attacked their secret jungle prison.
Recovery of the corpses would give scientists a chance to determine the true circumstances of the deaths.
"We got a request from the Farc to recover the bodies, and we got the green light from the government to do so," said a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Colombia.
The guerrillas kidnapped the lawmakers in 2002 from a government building in the western city of Cali by masquerading as soldiers and escorting them onto a bus, saying they were being evacuated due to a bomb scare.
Farc leader Ricardo Palmera was convicted yesterday in connection with the kidnapping of the three US contractors in 2003.
Palmera was captured in Ecuador and then extradited to the United States from Colombia in December 2004.
The three hostages remain in Farc captivity.