Report No. 27 (1994) IACHR. Case No. 11.084 (Perú)

• Case Number: 11.084
• Year: 1994
• Report Number: 27
• Respondent State: Perú
• Case Type: Merits
• Court: Inter-American Comission of Human Rights
• Alleged Victim: Jaime Salinas

REPORT Nº 27/94 CASE 11.084 PERU November 30, 1994 I. INTRODUCTION On November 17, 1992, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights received a petition from Mrs. Isabel López Torres de Salinas in respect of the arbitrary detention and subsequent holding incommunicado of her husband, Major General (retd.) Jaime Salinas Sedó and their son Jaime Salinas López Torres, on November 13, 1992. Later, on January 8, 1993, a more comprehensive petition was presented, signed by Mrs. Isabel López Torres de Salinas, Mrs. María de Lourdes Antonieta Lazo Astete de Carmona, Mrs. Malva Dalila Ibarra Lombardi, Mrs. Rosa del Pilar Vives de Pastor, Mrs. Diana Yolanda Medina Braizat de Obando, Mrs. Grimanesa M. Vargas de Obando, Mrs. María Lucila Baca Alvarez de Martínez, Mrs. Delicia Saldaña Montenegro de Noblecilla, Mrs. María Hague de Aguilar, Mrs. Irma Bravo de Ormeño, Mrs. Frida Pérez Motín de Zárate, Mrs. María del Carmen Cornejo Llerena de Moreno, and Mrs. Cecilia Isabel Cavassa Valdivia de Soriano, including, in addition to Major General Jaime Salinas Sedó and his son, Jaime Salinas López Torres, the following plaintiffs: — Major EP (retd.) Salvador Carmona Bernasconi — Major EP César Alberto Cáceres Haro — Major General (retd.) José Gabriel Pastor Vives — Brigadier General EP Manuel Fernando Obando Salas — Brigadier General EP Víctor Ernesto Obando Salas — Colonel EP César Martínez Uribe — Colonel EP Jorge Noblecilla — Comandante EP Enrique Aguilar del Alcázar — Major EP Hugo Ormeño Huapaya - Comandante EP Marco Antonio Zárate Rotta — Comandante EP Arturo Moreno Alcántara — General EP (retd.) Luis Armando Soriano Morgan The petition reported the arbitrary and unlawful detention of the victims, who were denied immediate communication with their close relatives and their lawyers, in violation of the right to personal liberty, presumption of innocence, and the right to defense; the torture and other cruel and degrading treatment causing injuries of varying degrees to some of the detainees; their transfer to a prison for extremely dangerous criminals, especially those accused of terrorist acts and illicit drug trafficking; and the unlawful and wrongful prosecution of the accused by a military tribunal, in violation of the principle of nullum crimen sine lege, of equality of the law, and of independence and impartiality of the court. II. PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMISSION On November 18, 1992, the Commission began its proceedings in the case and dispatched a transcript of the pertinent parts of the petition to the Government of Peru, requesting it to provide additional information on the alleged events, particularly any other evidence that would enable it to decide whether all domestic remedies had been exhausted in the case. The Government of Peru replied to the Commission's request on January 27, 1994, confirming that a suit had been brought against Major General (retd.) Jaime Salinas Sedó, José G. Pastor Vives and Luis Palomino Rodríguez before the Supreme Military Tribunal. It also declared that it had ordered that Generals Salinas Sedó and Pastor Vives be detained indefinitely, and the unconditional release of General Palomino Rodríguez. In a note of January 8, 1993, the initial petition was expanded to include other officers who, like General Salinas Sedó and his son, Jaime Salinas López Torres, had been detained in connection with the events of November 13, 1992. The following officers were included as petitioners: Generals Luis Soriano Morgan, Ernesto Obando Salas, and Manuel Obando Salas; Colonels Jorge Noblecilla and César Martínez; Comandantes Enrique Aguilar del Alcázar, Arturo Moreno Alcántara and Mario Zárate Rotta, and Majors César Cáceres Haro, Hugo Ormeño and Salvador Carmona. The petitioners requested the Commission to pronounce on the admissibility of the case, in the light of the claims made. Since these claims were connected in regard to the time and the events, on February 11, 1993, the Commission added the complaint lodged by General José Pastor Vives to the present case. On April 15, 1993, the Government of Peru dispatched to the Commission reports from the National Police claiming that General Salinas Sedó had not been detained at any police station. It also declared that Mr. Jaime Salinas López Torres had been handed over to the DINCOTE on November 14, 1992 on presumption of a terrorist offense and crimes against the authorities of the State and against the Constitution. Mr. Jaime Salina López Torres appeared before Criminal Prosecution Office 34 of the Province of Lima, and the case against him was eventually dismissed for lack of evidence to incriminate him in terrorist activity. On May 20 and September 24, 1993, the petitioners presented the Commission with additional information supporting the admissibility of the case and the existence of violations of human rights protected by the American Convention. By note of December 3, 1993, the Government of Peru submitted its observations on the petitioners' arguments, in which it refuted any violation of due legal process in the handling of the cases against them. On February 2, 1994, the Government of Peru sent the Commission supplementary information on the status of the case against Mr. Jaime Salinas López Torres, confirming that the Peruvian criminal justice system had found that there was no evidence that he had committed a terrorist act. On February 24, 1994, the Commission dispatched a letter to the Government of Peru expressing its concern about the situation of Mr. Jaime Salinas López Torres. In the same letter, it pointed out that although it had been decided that Mr. Salinas was not responsible for acts of terrorism, judicial proceedings against him had not ended. On February 10, 1994, at a hearing before the Commission, the petitioners furnished additional information on the case, at the Commission's request. III. THE ACTS IN QUESTION From information supplied by the petitioners to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the acts that allegedly violated rights protected by Articles 7, 5, 8, 35 and 9 of the American Convention were those described below: 1. Acts pertaining to personal liberty and humane treatment of the officers On November 12, 1992, a group of Peruvian army officers, some on active duty and some retired, held a coordination meeting at a private venue, at which they discussed the feasibility of "bringing down the de facto regime installed in the country since April 5, 1992, for the sole and altruistic purpose of restoring the democratic system," thereby fulfilling the constitutional duty set forth in Articles 74, 82 and 307 of the Political Constitution of 1979. On November 13, 1992, at the end of the meeting started the previous day, these officers decided, motu propio, to cancel their plans, which thus remained at the preparatory stage without escalating to the level of an assault punishable under Peruvian criminal law. At 1:00 a.m. when the meeting had ended and most of the participants had returned home, special forces of the Army surrounded the building, which at that time contained only Generals (retd.) Jaime Salinas Sedó, Ernesto Obando and Luis Soriano Morgan, Majors Salvador Carmona and César Cáceres Haro, and two civilians, Mr. Jaime Eduardo Salinas López Torres, son of General (retd.) Jaime Salinas Sedó, and Mr. Jorge Pollack. At approximately 3:15 a.m. on November 13, as the above were leaving, special forces of the army, led by Brigadier General Luis Pérez Documet, opened fire without warning and without the arrest of the surrounded officers. At the time the shots were fired, General (retd.) Jaime Salinas Sedó, wearing civilian clothes and unarmed, was about to get into his vehicle when, without any order for his arrest, he was fired upon. The armored vehicle was hit more than eighty times, and the driver wounded. To save his life and prevent those still inside the building from being massacred, General (retd.) Jaime Salinas Sedó proceeded to Army Headquarters and gave himself up without resisting. Later, the squad surrounding the building where the officers were was ordered to storm the premises in which "a meeting of senior MRTA officers was being held", as the soldiers who had surrounded it were falsely informed. A group of officers and civilians were then arrested, without a warrant, by the police and members of the armed forces. They were: Major General (retd.) Luis Palomino Rodriguez, Major General (retd.) José Pastor Vives, Brigadier General Manuel Obando Salas, Colonel Jorge Noblecilla, Colonel César Martínez, Comandante Enrique Aguilar de Alcazar, Comandante Arturo Moreno Alcántara, Comandante Marco Zárate Rotta, and Major Hugo Ormeño. The complaint claims that four of the officers were tortured and subjected to other unlawful judicial constraints by the authorities in whose charge they were placed. Comandante Zárate Rotta has complained that, in addition to other physical abuse, he was struck on the back by Comandante Huaman Ascurra, and that he was cuffed and slapped by Vladimiro Montesinos Torres, that he was bound by the feet, hands, waist and neck to a metal chair and given electric shocks in both his hands. Similar treatment was reported by Comandante Aguilar de Alcázar and Majors Salvador B. Carmona and César Cáceres Haro. 2. Acts pertaining to the violation of the right to a fair trial and the protection of the law The plaintiffs maintain that during the period they were held incommunicado, they were interrogated without their lawyers being present and subjected to psychological pressure to force them to sign their statements...