Report No. 20 (1998) IACHR. Petition No. 11.762 (Perú)

• Report Number: 20
• Petition Number: 11.762
• Court: Inter-American Comission of Human Rights
• Case Type: Admissibility
• Respondent State: Perú
• Alleged Victim: Baruch Ivcher Bronstein

OEA/Ser.L/V/II.98; doc. 6 rev.; 13 April 1998; Original: Spanish REPORT Nº 20/98 CASE 11.762 BARUCH IVCHER BRONSTEIN PERU March 3, 1998 I. BACKGROUND 1. Baruch Ivcher Bronstein, a Peruvian citizen and entrepreneur, was chairman of the board of directors and majority shareholder of "Frecuencia Latina-Canal 2" television. He acquired Peruvian nationality by virtue of a supreme decree, as required under the existing law. Under both the law in force at the time and the present law, aliens are not permitted to own a radio or television channel in Peru. 2. In early 1997, Television Channel 2 devoted several programs in its series "Contrapunto" to reports of alleged irregularities within the government, the most prominent being the programs that featured on the case of Army Intelligence Service (Servicio de Inteligencia del Ejército - SIE) agents Mariela Barreto Riofano and Leonor La Rosa Bustamante, the first of whom had been tortured and murdered. The coverage made public the private income tax declarations of Dr. Vladimiro Montecinos Torres, a presidential advisor and member of the National Intelligence Service (Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional - SIN); another important program revealed cases where the intelligence services had tapped the phones of various Peruvian officials and prominent figures. 3. After these news stories were aired, a number of congressmen sought a congressional investigation, whereupon a number of events occurred which Frecuencia Latina blamed on various agencies of the State, such as irregular investigations of Frecuencia Latina by officials from the Office of the National Tax Administration Superintendent, and military helicopter overflights of Mr Ivcher's businesses at various hours of the day. Frecuencia Latina continued to broadcast its news stories, which included programs on the operations planned against the media to threaten journalists and the opponents of the Government, as well as phone tapping of journalists, politicians and government officials. 4. On May 23, 1997, the Armed Forces Joint Command released Official Communique No. 002-97 CCFFAA, which mentions Baruch Ivcher and underscores the fact that he was a naturalized Peruvian citizen. The press communique accused Baruch Ivcher of using the media to wage a campaign to slander the Armed Forces by misrepresenting situations, twisting facts and broadcasting "obviously malicious" commentaries. It added that slander of that type was unacceptable to the Armed Forces, which refused to accept the "tendentious and malicious campaign waged, because it was an abuse of freedom of expression and an attempt to alienate the public from the Armed Forces." 5. Then, on May 28, 1997, Supreme Decree No. 004-97-IN was published, which approves the regulations governing Nationality Act No. 26,574, Article 12 of which states that "naturalized citizenship shall be canceled ... D. For acts that could be detrimental to the national security and the interests of the State." Article 27 states that "Acquired Peruvian citizenship is lost ... "for the reasons stipulated in Article 12 of the Nationality Act." According to the petitioners, these Regulations Governing the Nationality Law ... give the President of the Republic the authority to revoke an individual's nationality, in flagrant violation of articles 2, paragraph 21, and 53 of the Peruvian Constitution. II. PETITIONERS 6. On June 9, 1997, a petition was received at the Commission in which Peruvian Congressman Javier Díez Canseco alleged facts leading to a reasonable presumption that the Peruvian State was setting the stage to arbitrarily strip Peruvian entrepreneur Baruch Ivcher Bronstein, the majority shareholder of television channel "Frecuencia Latina", of his citizenship, in violation of Article 20(3) of the American Convention. 7. Later, on July 17, 1997, the dean of the Lima Bar Association, Mr. Vladimir Paz de la Barra, filed a complaint on the victim's behalf, alleging that the Peruvian State had stripped Baruch Ivcher Bronstein of his Peruvian citizenship, thereby violating Article 20(3) of the American Convention on Human Rights. 8. On August 26, 1997, Mr. Baruch Ivcher Bronstein, the victim, attached a note addressed to the Commission wherein he requested a hearing with the Commission for himself and his attorney, thereby becoming a party to the proceedings already underway with the Commission. 9. Mr. Ivcher, by letter dated February 27, 1998, addressed to Ambassador Jorge Taiana, the Executive Secretary of the IACHR, appointed Mr. Ariel Dulitzky, co-Director of the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), as one of his representatives in this case. III. FACTS 10. In 1984, Mr. Baruch Ivcher Bronstein, an Israeli-born attorney, became a naturalized Peruvian citizen, certified by nationality document No. 004644, approved by Supreme Resolution No. 0649-RE of November 27, 1984, and signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. 11. On July 10, 1997, PNP General Fernando Dianderas Ottone, Director General of the National Police, held a press conference to announce the findings of report No. 003-97-IN-05010 of July 10, 1997, prepared by the General Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, to the effect that the file for citizenship document No. 004644, pertaining to Baruch Ivcher B, approved by Supreme Resolution No. 0649-RE of November 27, 1984, signed by the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, in keeping with Naturalization Act No. 9148, was not to be found at the General Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization. 12. That press conference was followed by publication of Directorial Resolution No. 117-97-IN-050100000000 dated July 11, 1997, in the Official Gazette El Peruano of July 13, 1997. In that administrative resolution, the Government "revokes" Baruch Ivcher Bronstein's Peruvian citizenship document because of "substantive omissions that invalidate it ipso jure, because the proper Peruvian authorities were not shown proof of his having first renounced his original nationality nor did he show any document confirming that the authorities of his country of origin were advised that he was renouncing his citizenship of birth." The resolution is signed by PNP Colonel Víctor Hugo Huamán del Solar, Director General of Immigration and Naturalization. 13. The preamble of the resolution emphasized the fact that no copy or record was on file of the original naturalization procedure that Baruch Ivcher B. followed. It also stressed his failure to formally renounce his citizenship of birth -Israeli; according to the directorial resolution, the first notarized evidence of his having renounced his citizenship of birth was dated July 6, 1990, which meant that no such evidence could have been seen at the time he was granted Peruvian citizenship on December 7, 1984. 14. Baruch Ivcher B. then applied for a writ of Amparo against Directorial Resolution No. 117-97-050100000000 (which revoked his citizenship document) with Lima Superior Court's Public Law Chamber. The ruling on his petition seeking to have the resolution nullified, dated August 14, 1997, dismissed it as being unfounded. An appeal was filed to challenge the ruling. The Provisional Public Law Chamber heard the petition and, in a ruling dated October 24, 1997, nullified all proceedings because of a mistake made in the notification of the action. With that the case was returned to the lower courts. Once the case records were returned to the lower court, the latter handed down a new judgment, dated November 12, 1997, which declared that no cause for action had been shown. The petitioner appealed that ruling, again with the Provisional Public Law Chamber, which in a ruling of December 22, 1997, upheld the lower-court ruling. The petitioner challenged this decision before the Constitutional Court, which has not yet taken up the case. It should be added that the Court in question is currently functioning with only four of its seven members. 15. In the same filing, the petitioner sought a restraining order to suspend the effects of the directorial resolution that stripped him of his citizenship. That petition was denied on August 15, 1997. When the ruling was appealed, the same Lima Superior Court Public Law Chamber, in a ruling dated September 11, 1997, nullified all the proceedings owing to an error in the notification of the defendant. When the case was returned to the lower court, on October 16, 1997, the presiding judge, Dr. Percy Escobar, again denied the request for a restraining order. The appeal on that ruling was decided by the Provisional Public Law Chamber which, on December 11, 1997, upheld the lower court's ruling, declaring that the provisional measure requested was out of order. 16. At the same time, on July 11, 1997, Mr. Mendel Winter Zuzunaga and Mr. Samuel Winter Zuzunaga, minority shareholders in Frecuencia Latina, filed their own petition of amparo seeking nullification of Mr. Baruch Ivcher B.'s purchase of shares in that television channel; they argued that because Mr. Ivcher was an Israeli citizen, he should have been barred from purchasing those shares and that the purchases should be declared null and void. In the same application, they petitioned the court for a provisional measure to allow them to take control of the channel's administration. In the lower court, the Judge of the First Public Law Chamber acceded to their request on August 1, 1997; his ruling was upheld on September 12, 1997, by Lima Superior Court's Provisional Public Law Chamber; the result was that Mr. Baruch Ivcher B.'s appointment as Director of the Latin American Radio Broadcasting Corporation and as Chairman of the Board of Directors of that body was revoked until the question of his Peruvian nationality was decided by the competent authority. 17. On September 19, 1997, the brothers Winter...