3
(e)(3) Bernardino Rodríguez-Lara was sentenced to death on
November 28, 1997, as the author of the crime of abduction. Mr.
Rodríguez-Lara’s defense lawyer filed an appeal for annulment; this
was admitted by the respective Chamber, which sentenced him to the
immediately inferior penalty (50 years’ imprisonment). The Attorney
General’s office (Ministerio Público) filed a special appeal for reversal
of that ruling; this was admitted by the Supreme Court of Justice,
which once again imposed the death penalty on Mr. Rodríguez-Lara.
The defense lawyer filed two further appeals, for amparo and for
review, both of which were denied. Finally, on November 24, 2003, Mr.
Rodríguez-Lara’s representatives filed a request for executive
clemency before the President of the Republic, which is still pending a
decision. The Commission received a petition against the State on
March 3, 2004, for the alleged violations committed against Mr.
Rodríguez-Lara. This petition is being processed before the
Commission; and
(e)(4) Pablo Arturo Ruiz-Almengor was sentenced to death as
author of the multiple offenses of kidnapping or abduction and
aggravated theft on November 29, 1999. Appeals for annulment, for
dismissal, for amparo, and for review were filed against his conviction,
all of which were denied, and the sentence was ratified. A petition filed
on March 3, 2004, by the Instituto de Defensa Pública Penal in favor of
Mr. Ruiz-Almengor is being processed before the Commission.
3.
The considerations of the Commission in which it indicated that the series of
alleged facts constitute a situation of extreme gravity and urgency that could cause
irreparable damage to the four persons included in the request for provisional
measure, since execution of the death sentence of the four prisoners included in the
request for provisional measures “would make it impossible to effect the eventual
restitutio in integrum of [their] rights.” The Commission also stated that the situation
was “particularly grave” since, on two different occasions in the past, the State failed
to comply with the precautionary measures ordered by the Inter-American
Commission in similar circumstances to those of this request for provisional
measures.
In light of the above, the Commission requested the Court to call upon the State of
Guatemala:
1.
To take the necessary measures to preserve the lives and personal integrity,
including the suspension of the execution of Ronald Ernesto Raxcacó-Reyes, Hugo
Humberto Ruiz-Fuentes, Bernardino Rodríguez-Lara and Pablo Arturo Ruiz-Almengor, so
as not to hinder the processing of their cases before the Inter-American system.
2.
That the Guatemalan State should inform the Court of the measures taken to
comply with the […] request.
4.
The note of the Secretariat of the Court (hereinafter “the Secretariat”) of
August 17, 2004, in which, on the instructions of the President of the Court
(hereinafter “the President”), it requested the Commission to report on the real
imminence of the application of the death penalty in the case of Ronald Ernesto
Raxcacó-Reyes, Hugo Humberto Ruiz-Fuentes, Bernardino Rodríguez-Lara and Pablo
Arturo Ruiz-Almengor.
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